TRUMP SUPPORTER CONGRESSMAN CHARGED WITH INSIDER TRADING

WASHINGTON: A US lawmaker from New York who was one of President Donald Trump’s earliest and most vocal supporters was arrested on Wednesday and charged with insider trading and lying to FBI investigators about it. Christopher Collins, a Republican who represents a New York state congressional district in the House of Representatives, has been accused of selling shares in an Australian drugmaker on the basis of information provided to him ahead of a public announcement of a failed clinical trial.

He is a three-term member of the House of Representatives from congressional district 25 of New York state. An obscure lawmaker for most part, he shot to fame as the first member of Congress to back Trump in February 2016 and early in the Trump administration he became “an informal liaison for the White House to Capitol Hill”, according to The New York Times. Collins is a member of the board of Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited and its largest shareholder. He is alleged to have received an email from the CEO about failed testing of a drug for multiple sclerosis, while attending a Congressional picnic at the White House in June, 2017. He allegedly passed on that tip to his son, Cameron Collins, in a phone call 15 minutes after receiving the email.

The latter allegedly sold 1.4 mn Innate shares, avoiding losses worth $570,000.