U.S. Congressman charged with insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced the filing of insider trading charges against Congressman Christopher Collins, the U.S. Representative for New York’s 27th Congressional District, his son, Cameron Collins, and a third individual, Stephen Zarsky. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced related criminal charges.

The SEC reports that Christopher Collins, who served as an independent director of an Australian biotech company, Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd., is charged with tipping Cameron Collins after receiving confidential information about negative clinical trial results for Innate’s multiple sclerosis drug. Cameron Collins and his girlfriend’s father, Stephen Zarsky, are charged with trading and tipping others on the basis of the material, nonpublic information. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Christopher Collins learned of negative clinical trial results on the evening of June 22, 2017, in an email from Innate’s CEO to the board of directors, which stated that the CEO had “extremely bad news” indicating that drug trial results “pretty clearly indicate ‘clinical failure.’ ” Cameron Collins and Zarsky allegedly avoided losses of over $700,000 by selling Innate shares before the clinical trial results were made public.