‘Bigly’ Trump supporting GOP congressman ARRESTED
What could possibly look worse than being indicted while having ties to former game show host Donald Trump?
How about this: an early and vocal House supporter of Trump just got arrested!
Rep. Chris Collins was arrested Wednesday morning on federal charges relating to securities fraud … the Buffalo area congressman surrendered to the FBI in Manhattan.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District has scheduled a press conference for noon to discuss the charges.
A 22-page civil complaint accuses Collins, his son Cameron, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron’s fiancee, of insider trading. Specifically, Collins is accused of using information from negative clinical trial tests conducted by Innate, a pharmaceutical company.
WGRZ adds a couple of details:
All are being processed by the FBI in Manhattan.
The charges stem from an ethics investigation that was launched last year following accusations that Collins shared non-public information about an Australian biotech company.
CNBC:
In June 2017, Collins passed nonpublic information about Innate’s drug trial results to his son in order to help him “make timely trades in Innate stock and tip others,” the indictment alleges.
His son then traded on that inside information and passed it to Zarsky, along with numerous unnamed co-conspirators, “so that they could utilize the information for the same purpose,” according to the indictment.
Zarsky, too, allegedly traded on the inside knowledge and passed it along to yet more unnamed co-conspirators.
In total, the three defendants avoided “over $768,000 in losses that they would have otherwise incurred” had they sold their stock after the information was made public, according to the indictment.
In a statement to CNBC, attorneys for Collins vowed to “mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name.”
Collins was the first congresscritter to get on board the Trump trainwreck:
[In 2016], Collins was simply a congressman representing western New York and the Finger Lakes with no leadership roles or national profile to speak of.
That all changed after Feb. 24, 2016, when he became known as the first member of Congress to endorse Trump.
Since then, Collins served at Trump’s behest as the congressional liaison to the transition team. And he became one of Trump’s top defenders in more than 200 national television appearances.
It would not be a stretch to say that Collins et al are emulating Trump family values. ‘Nuff said!
