Cameron Collins And Stephen Zarsky Plead Guilty To Insider Trading Scheme Involving Former Congress-

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Cameron Collins And Stephen Zarsky Plead Guilty To Insider Trading Scheme Involving Former Congressman Christopher Collins


Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that CAMERON COLLINS, the son of former United States Congressman Christopher Collins, and STEPHEN ZARSKY, the father of CAMERON COLLINS’s fiancée, pled guilty to participating in a scheme to commit insider trading in the stock of Innate Immunotherapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company for which Christopher Collins served on the board of directors.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Insider trading corrupts the integrity of our markets. The strength of our financial system depends on investors knowing that everyone is playing by the rules. Today’s guilty pleas reaffirm the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners to protecting and defending those values.”

The following facts are based on the allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment and statements made in related court filings and proceedings:

The Insider Trading Scheme

The Scheme

In or about June 2017, Christopher Collins, who, in addition to serving on Innate’s board of directors, was also one of Innate’s largest shareholders, participated in a scheme to commit insider trading. Specifically, on or about June 22, 2017, Christopher Collins learned that MIS416 – a multiple sclerosis drug that Innate was developing – had failed a critical drug trial that was meant to determine the drug’s clinical efficacy (the “Drug Trial”). The negative Drug Trial results were highly confidential, and, as an insider who owed duties of trust and confidence to Innate, Christopher Collins was obligated to keep the Drug Trial results secret until Innate publicly released them. Instead, in breach of those duties, Christopher Collins tipped his son, CAMERON COLLINS, who was also a substantial Innate shareholder, so that CAMERON COLLINS could make timely trades and tip others before Innate publicly released the Drug Trial results. CAMERON COLLINS traded on the inside information and passed it to the father of his fiancée, STEPHEN ZARSKY, as well as to three individuals not named in the Superseding Indictment (“Individual-1,” “Individual-2,” and “Individual-6”), so that they could utilize the information for the same purpose. ZARSKY, in turn, traded on the information and used it to tip three more individuals not named in the Superseding Indictment (“Individual-3,” “Individual-4,” and “Individual-5,”) so that they too could engage in timely trades in Innate stock. All of the trades preceded the public release of the negative Drug Trial results.

In total, these trades allowed CAMERON COLLINS and ZARSKY, and Individual-1 through Individual-6, to avoid over $768,000 in losses that they would have otherwise incurred if they had sold their stock in Innate after the Drug Trial results became public.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/cameron-collins-and-stephen-zarsky-plead-guilty-insider-trading-scheme-involving-former