Rep. Christopher Collins (R-NY) was arrested and indicted Wednesday for insider trading, according to reports.
NBC News’ Tom Winter says the lawmaker surrendered himself to the FBI this morning.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District is scheduled to hold a press conference on the matter at noon. Collins and his son Cameron, along with Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron’s fiancee, were charged with insider trading in connection to “securities of an Australian biotechnology company,” Innate Immunotherapeutics.
ABC News’s Aaron Katersky reports that Collins’ alleged crime was a family affair. “Federal prosecutors said Collins tipped his son to the failure of a test drug for multiple sclerosis,” he writes. “When the results went public, shares of the Australian biotech company plummeted. Collins and his co-defendants made $768,000.”
“The defendants are accused of multiple counts of securities fraud, as well as one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count each of making false statements. [Rep. Collins] is expected to appear in federal court in lower Manhattan later today,” CNBC reports.
The New York lawmaker’s lawyers released the following statement: “We will answer the charges filed against Congressman Collins in Court and will mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name. 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. Congressman Collins will have more to say on this issue later today.”
Collins, a three-term incumbent representing New York’s 27th congressional district, is facing re-election this fall.
Federal Election Commission filings state the lawmaker’s campaign has raised in excess of $1.34 million.
source: breitbart.com
I ask what the hell is wrong with us ,our unemployment rate is lowest in history. Why are some folks not caring about this.
My next door neighbor told me, it’s ok if our economy fails as long as Dems are ruling out country.
Time to wake up haters. Or let hate rule us which is called civil war.
WOW, liberals really ARE after re-electable Republicans…they THINK this will work but it is soooooo transparent what their MO is and will be until the election….hey, we voters are NOT that stupid! It WILL backfire on you. But New Yorkers – they’ll do ANYTHING ANY TIME – they’re so arrogant in their thinking and “reasoning”…
If Senator Collins is convicted will he be expeclled from Congress?
“Follow the Money”!
I firmly believe that there are people within our government, Local, State, and Federal, who are actively involved in abusing the tax dollars they collect. And that they purposefully can and do use or re-alocate those targeted taxes for purposes other than the reason(s) for collecting of the taxes in the first place.
If each level of government was actually audited, the people would find that the government is first and foremost, making sure that they are firmly entrenched in their job, elected office, appointed to whatever agency they lead, and even the vast majority of government workers who have been in their jobs the longest, are activley conspiring with each other, as well as the Demcrat/Socialist Party to insure that they are well taken care of for their adherence to a code of “me first” when it comes to benefitting from any government largesse for their employees, and are working against the American Taxpayers at each opportunity arises where they can do so, out of fear for their very lives, if any one of these government workers dares to even hint they might be going to talk to someone about what they know and can prove is going on with our tax dollars.
Republicans need to stop electing stupid people like this. They’ve repented of voting for the wicked folks in the Democratic party, now they need to get practiced in getting folks like this out of politics before they can shoot their own selves in the foot, criminally.