Tarnished rep
Upstate GOPer broke law in stock buy: ethics panel
ALBANY — A congressional ethics panel Thursday found “substantial reason to believe” that an upstate congressman and key President Trump supporter broke federal law.
The Office of Congressional Ethics has been looking into Rep. Chris Collins (photo inset) and his relationship with an Australian biotech firm.
Collins, a Republican from the Buffalo area, is a board member of Innate Immunotherapeutics and holds stock in the Australian company.
The Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics, in a 6-0 vote, found Collins may have shared nonpublic information in the purchase of the stock, which would violate federal law and House rules.
There’s also substantial reason to believe he used his position to set up a meeting with the National Institutes of Health in November 2013 to ask that an NIH employee meet with Innate employees to discuss clinical trial designs, the panel found.
“If Representative Collins took official actions or requested officials’ actions that would assist a single entity in which he had a significant financial interest, then he may have violated House rules and standards of conduct,” the report says.
The Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended the Committee on Ethics further review the allegations.
A third allegation — that Collins purchased discounted Innate stock that was only made available to him because he is a congressman — should be dismissed, the board recommended.
A source close to the congressman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Collins invested about $5 million in the company over the years.
The report recommends the House ethics committee subpoena the 10 individuals and entities that refused to cooperate with the board's investigation, including Tom Price, former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Innate and its CEO, Simon Wilkinson, and Collins' former legislative assistant, Jeff Freeland.
Price was also an investor in Innate.
Collins denied any wrongdoing, saying that “throughout my tenure in Congress, I have followed all rules and ethical guidelines when it comes to my personal investments.”
Rep. Louise Slaughter (DRochester) said her colleague had “put his obsession to enrich himself before the people he swore to represent. It is a disgrace to Congress and to his constituents, who deserve better."
Collins countered to a Fox News reporter that Slaughter is “a despicable human being” who is “on a witch hunt.”
Collins was the first member of Congress to back Trump’s presidential run in 2016, and was a key ally in his fight to pass a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare.
The ethics office, an independent, nonpartisan entity, investigates allegations before making recommendations to the House Committee on Ethics, which has the power to sanction lawmakers.