Posted on 08/08/2018 9:37:31 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Insider trading was a family affair for upstate New York congressman Chris Collins, federal prosecutors charged Wednesday.
The Republican lawmaker, one of President Trump’s earliest supporters, was charged along with his son Cameron Collins and the father of Cameron’s fiancée, Stephen Zarsky, in a scheme that allowed them to avoid $768,000 in stock losses, prosecutors say.
The trio are accused of securities fraud related to Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotechnology company. The elder Collins sits on the firm’s board of directors and is one of its largest shareholders.
Manhattan federal prosecutors say the upstate New York congressman passed to his son confidential information that a new multiple sclerosis drug had failed a medical trial.
Armed with the insider tips, Cameron Collins was able to “make timely trades in Innate stock and tip others,” the indictment says.
Cameron Collins handed off the information to his fiancee’s father, who also made stock trades and passed on the tip to others, prosecutors say.
The public announcement of the failed drug trials caused the Innate stock price to plummet 92%.
“All of the trades preceded the public release of the negative drug trial results, and were timed to avoid losses that they would have suffered once the news became public,” the indictment says.
The defendants are expected to appear in Manhattan Federal Court Wednesday afternoon to face charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and other counts.
Collins’ attorneys released a statement defending the Republican lawmaker.
"We will answer the charges filed against Congressman Collins in court and will mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name,” said lawyers Jonathan Barr and Jonathan New. “It is notable that even the government does not allege that Congressman Collins traded a single share of Innate Therapeutics stock. We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated.”
Collins found out about the drug trial failure in an email from Innate’s CEO on the night of June 22, 2017, the indictment says.
The congressman replied to the CEO 15 minutes later. “ Wow. Makes no sense,” he wrote. “How are these results even possible???”
Then Collins and his son traded six missed phone calls over the next four minutes. They finally connected a minute later in a call that resulted in Chris Collins sharing the news of the failed drug trial with his son, the indictment says.
The next morning, Cameron Collins sold 16,508 shares of Innate stock. He sold additional shares in the subsequent hours and days after conversations with his father, the indictment says.
In total, he sold nearly 1.4 million shares of Innate stock between June 23 and June 26. The dumping of his shares allowed him to avoid roughly $570,900 in losses, the indictment says.
Chris Collins did not trade any stocks himself and his holdings ultimately lost millions of dollars in value once the drug trial results were made public. Prosecutors say Collins was blocked from making his own trades because he was under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and his shares were held in Australia where a halt was put on any Innate share buys or sells.
The congressman’s office later released a misleading statement to reporters that suggested his son had not sold any Innate shares prior to the public announcement of the drug trial, the indictment says.
Chris Collins himself made his opinions on the matter clear in an email about press coverage of Innate. “We want this to go away,” he wrote, according to the indictment.
Allegations of suspicious stock trades have dogged Chris Collins for more than 18 months. With Collins leading the charge, Congress passed legislation that could benefit experimental drug makers such as Innate Immunotherapeutics.
“Do you know how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months?” Collins was overheard saying into his cell phone off the House floor in early January 2017.
Chris Collins, whose district covers parts of western New York between Buffalo and Rochester, isn’t the only high-profile Republican who has made a mint selling shares of Innate stock.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price more than tripled his investment when he sold his shares in the company in Feb. 2017, raking in at least $225,000, according to public records.
A spokeswoman said Price, then a GOP congressman from Georgia, learned about the company from Collins.
It doesn’t matter that he’s not an Attorney? One farticle I read said that makes him ineligible for Judge.
Carl Paladino has announced he's running for the seat. We might be better off with the crook.
“It doesn’t matter that he’s not an Attorney?”
_____________________
I hadn’t thought of that possibility. I can’t remember the candidates who managed to get off the ballot by accepting judicial nominations, or whether they were licensed attorneys. If Collins can’t be nominated to a judgeship, maybe he can be nominated for another office that would conflict with running for Congress, or he can move to one of his “second homes” in another state and establish residency there.
Paladino would have to be picked by the GOP in order to replace Collins on the ballot, no? I think that the party leaders will pick someone less controversial.
Still no replacement.
There are no vacant local posts in Collins’ town, you have to live in the town you are running in on election day, I don’t think Lazio lived in the Bronx so maybe judicial office is different. There are vacant posts in a neighboring town, I suppose Collins needs to rent a place there.
GOP seems preoccupied with the possibly of a dem legal challenge succeeding, prospective candidates who are in the State leg worry they could enter the Congressional race only to be unable to return to their state leg race if a challenge succeeds. No would ever dream of denying the democrats a chance to replace their nominee in a Black district (not that they would need to since the accused winning anyway would be a foregone conclusion).
For simplicity sake maybe a former/non/not up for reelection officeholder who is not Paladino might be the best choice for a replacement.
Yeah, judicial office must be different because Republicans who beg off the ballot always get nominated for judge in the Bronx or something. I don’t know why they can’t do that with Collins. Maybe Collins should register to vote in one of his out-of-state homes (he has homes in two other states IIRC) and that would be that.
The NY Times reports that the GOP doesn’t want to replace Collins with a state senator because the party has a slim majority in the state senate and because if a liberal judge rules that Collins must stay on the ballot it would leave that state senator in the lurch. The article mentions that the Erie County Comptroller, who isn’t up for reelection this year, is offering himself as a replacement, saying that if the courts rule that Collins must stay on the ballot that he can continue as county comptroller and no other office would be affected. The county comptroller’s name is Stefan I. Mychajliw, so I hope that they can include the name on the ballot and that Republicans don’t have to write in his name. You may remember that when Tom DeLay dropped out of his 2006 reelection after his phony, politically motivated indictment that later got thrown out, the Fort Bend County Republican Party chose a lady with the name of Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as DeLay’s replacement for the regular general election, but the courts ruled that her name could not appear on the ballot, and, to make matters even worse, the voting machines did not allow writing on the ballots, so voters had to use some sort of disk and find each of the 18 letters in her name (plus a space and a hyphen) in order to write her in. (Not surprisingly, Sekula-Gibbs lost the election, although she did win the special election held that same day for the month remaining in the term in which (i) her name did appear on the ballot and (ii) Democrat nominee Nick Lampson did not compete in the special election because he wanted to avoid confusing Democrat voters who might vote for him in the special but then not vote for him in the regular election.)
I heard that
1)It’s too late for him to move out of state
2)He’s not a lawyer so he can’t run for Judge
I don’t know if either is true or if the residency requirements have changed since Lazio in 2010.
All I know is this has the veneer of desperate fools grasping in the dark and I’m starting to get concerned. It’s past time to make a decision and a move.
“the voting machines did not allow writing on the ballots, so voters had to use some sort of disk and find each of the 18 letters in her name (plus a space and a hyphen) in order to write her in.”
Oh God, I never knew that about the Sekula-Gibbs race. Write ins with no writing allowed?!?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.