The prosecutors say the Information Collins provided saved 8 men over 768,000 in a lawsuit. In a Statement Collins lawyer says its notable that even the government does not allege that he traded a share of the stock. We are confident he will be exonerated. Also a statement here by paul ryan. While his guilt and innocence is a question for the court to settle the allegations demand a prompt and thorough investigation by house Ethics Committee. Insider trading is violation of the public trust. Until the matter is settled, representative colins will not serve on the house eenergy and commerce committee. They are saying its true he lost millions in stock but the only reason he didnt make trades himself because it was
held up in the australian stock market. Technically, he just could not. He was also under investigation by the Ethics Committee at the time for the similar accusations. Mr. Collins is considered the 13th Wealthiest member of Congress Worth 44 million according to the roll call. He is expected to be in Federal Court at 2 30. Melissa so i want to clarify. That is a really interesting detail. He learned that the drug failed the trial through email from the c. E. O. Not as a result of to his government job. And he heard it from someone where the testing was going on, the food and Drug Administration or whatever. Is that right . Yes. According to the indictment he learned about this at the congressional picnic from the c. E. O. Of the company who says we have terrible news. The drug has failed. It was within minutes of that, that they have a willing of phone calls in which the representative collins we gone
to call his son six times trying to alert his son according to the indictment that the drug failed. And the next morning the prosecutors say his son began to move and trade on that information. It wasnt until five days later that this news became public and the stock plummeted 92 . Melissa all right, brian. Thank you so much. As we said before, if you look at the screen, we are waiting for the News Conference to begin any second. And in the meantime, lets talk a little bit about what we just heard. Josh, i assume he found out through his government job. Its interesting that this looks like plain vanilla Insider Trading. I think it will start in about two minutes here if you stick with us in the office. If you stick with us on the couch. As we watch there. The podium. Josh holmes is with us. Josh, this sounds like classic Insider Trading where a board
member finds out and lets other people know so they could trade on the information. They will have to prove he called the son six times. What transpired in the conversation. I wonder if its enough just if the son traded on it next day. Josh it doesnt sound like a nexus to the congressional job as you pointed out but it doesnt make it any better. Melissa no, no. It doesnt make it no, just an interesting fact. Normally you would make the point or i would make the point, nobody in congress should be on the board of any Public Company because the temptation is too, you know, to influence or to share what you know, the temptation is too great. But apparently that had nothing to do with this. Josh you are absolutely right. I work for a number of different senators. I always provided guidance on this to just go beyond reproach. Melissa just dont do it. Josh you will end up losing money but that is okay. You decided to serve your country in capacity of a congressman and its far better to elimination all potential problems by
divesting of yourself in all of these areas and get clean, clean up on your own finances. So this is obviously a real problem for the house republicans. Harris if people are just tuning in and wonder what is on the left of the screen. Representative Chris Collins of new york is expected to make a statement. You see people filing in the venue where they will be hearing from him. Federal prosecutors about representative Chris Collins. The charges against him. Good afternoon. Harris lets watch. Im the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Today, we announce criminal charges against christopher collins, a United States congressman. He is charged with Insider Trading and lying to the f. B. I. As alleged in the indictment, Congressman Collins cheated our markets and our Justice System in two ways. First, he tipped his son to
confidential Corporate Information at the expense of regular investors. And then he lied about it to Law Enforcement to cover it up. Also charged is his son. Cameron collins. And stephen zarsky, the father of camerons fiancee. These charges are a reminder that this is a nation of laws. And that everybody stands equal before the bar of justice. Now id like to go into the details of the allegations a little more. In addition to serving in the house of representatives, Congressman Collins was also on the Board Of Directors of innate immunotherapeutics, a publicly traded company that was developing a drug for
multiple cler multiple sclerosis. In june of 2017, Congressman Collins was told confidential and highly Sensitive Information about innate. Information that was not yet made public. Namely, that innates main drug, the drug innate was developing to be the backbone of its company, was a total failure. This was devastating information for the company. Congressman collins had an obligation, a legal duty, to keep that Information Secret until that information was released by the company to the public. But he didnt keep it secret. Instead, as alleged, he decided to commit a crime. He placed his family and friends above the public good. Congressman collins was a major investor in innate. And so was his son cameron. The congressman knew he couldnt sell his own shares for personal and technical reasons including that he was already under an investigation regarding innate by the congressional ethics office. The crime that he committed was to tip his son cameron so that cameron and a few select others could trade on news while the investing public remained in the dark. As the indictment alleges, that is exactly what they did. His son cameron sold. Camerons fiancee sold. The father of the fiancee zarsky sold. Mr. Zarskys wife sold. Other friends and relatives sold. And all because Congressman Collins violated his duty to
keep innates Information Secret. And when the news of the drugs failure became public, the stock plummeted. In total, the conspirators used that Inside Information to avoid 765 million in losses. But Congressman Collins couldnt keep his crime a secret forever. The f. B. I. Asked to interview him. And instead of telling the truth, he lied. So did Cameron Collins. And so did stephen zarsky. By lying to the f. B. I. , they compounded their Insider Trading crime with the crime of criminal coverup. Now id like to go over to the two charts which summarize some of the allegations in the indictment. The first chart is a tipping chain. It demonstrates the flow of the illegal insider information. And the trading. The illegal trading on that information. That is the top of the chain is Congressman Collins. He had an obligation as innate board member when he received confidential Corporate Information to keep that Information Secret until the Company Announced it to the public. In total disregard of that obligation, minutes after Congressman Collins received the devastating, highly confidential news, that innates drug had failed its drug trial, Congressman Collins tipped that Inside Information to his son so that his son could trade. Cameron collins, when he
received that illegal Inside Information. He did two things. Both of which are illegal. He sold stock based on that Inside Information. And avoided 570,000 in losses. And he also took that illegal Inside Information and tipped others. He tipped his fiancee. He tipped his fiancees wife, he tipped his fiancees father and a friend. All of that traded on that illegal Inside Information. Stephen zarsky, his fiancees father avoided 143,000 in losses by trading on that information and he tipped others. He tipped his brother. He tipped his sister. And he tipped a friend. Two of whom traded on the information. One attempted to trade on the information but was unable. In total the conspirators avoided losses of over 768,000. All because of the initial illegal Insider Trading tip by Congressman Collins. In this chart, we set some of the key allegations in the indictment against a time line, a backdrop of the innate share price. On the evening of june 22, 2017, Congressman Collins was at a congressional picnic. And at 6 55 he received an email from the c. E. O. Of innate informing him of the horrendous news that the drug had failed the trial. 7 10 p. M. , Congressman Collinsresponded to that email. So as the indictment alleges, at least at 7 10 p. M. , Congressman Collins was aware of the Inside Information. A minute later, Congressman Collins attempts to call his son. In the period of five minutes, there are six unsuccessful calls. If on on the seventh call as alleged in the indictment, Congressman Collins illegally tip his son cameron about the Drug Trial Results so that his son cameron could trade on those results. Later that evening on june 22 after Cameron Collins has the illegal Insider Trading information, Cameron Collinsdrives with his fiancee to his fiancees parents house. They arrive at the house at 9 17 p. M. Less than 20 minutes later at 9 34 p. M. , his fiancees mother is on the phone with her broker beginning the process of selling her shares of innate. The next morning on june 23, 7 42 a. M. , Cameron Collins begins the process of selling his shares of innate. June 23 through june 26, Cameron Collins shares 1. 39 million shares of innate. Prior to the market close of june 26. After the market closes,
innate announces to the public that its drug had failed the trial. And the next day, the drug price, the price of innate falls off a cliff. It drops 92 in value in a single day. This was the drop that was anticipated by the coconspirators, this was the drop in value that the coconspirators avoided to sell the shares before the public announcement. They could only sell the shares by virtue of the initial tip of Inside Information by Congressman Collins. Case and this type of significance obviously involves the s. E. C. And the f. B. I. And their representatives are standing up here with me today. To my left, my good friend
bill sweeney, the assistant director in charge of the f. B. I. s new york field office. And to the far left is john brosnin, the special agent in charge of the f. B. I. New york office criminal division. The f. B. I. s work on this case was spectacular. And i want to thank fem thank them for the professionalism and the dedication. We work with the f. B. I. On so many important cases and its always a privilege. To the left of bill is Stephanie Avachian and steve peekin, the codirectors of the s. E. C. s division of enforcement. I want to thank them and the s. E. C. For their hard work on this matter. Last i want to acknowledge and thank the Career Prosecutors in my office handling the case. To my right is max nicholas,
damian williams, bob allen, scott harman and the cochiefs of our securities and Commodities Fraud Task force. Tim casoulas and jason cowley. Congressman collins, who by virtue of his office, helps to write the laws of our nation, acted as if The Law Didnt Apply to him. The charges today demonstrate once again that no matter what the crime and no matter who committed it, we stand committed in the pursuit of justice. Without fear or favor. I would like to invite to the podium bill sweeney. Melissa that was the u. S. Attorney from the Southern District of new york and he was explaining the case
against congressman Chris Collins, republican from new york, who has now been charged with Insider Trading. Both tipping and then also lying to the f. B. I. Was on the board of a Company Called innate, who had a single drug, m. S. Drug. He found out as a board member through an email from the c. E. O. It had failed drug trial. Its then alleged that he tipped off his son. And the chain of evidence vents went on from there. Josh, they showed how he will lay out the case. He tried with Chain Of Events and what happened afterwards to make it that a jury would conclude it had to be that he told the son what had happened there. And that then the tipping went on from there and he went on to lie to the f. B. I. With the Martha Stewart is a case everybody is familiar with, most people was familiar with. She was in the end found guilty of lying to f. B. I. They couldnt prove what was on the phone call. The essential thing here is the seat in new york city. So as a politician we heard Jason Chaffetz say in the last hour he should step down immediately guilty or innocent so that there is time to do what . Tell me what would happen. Josh this has not been a seat that the democrats targeted. The scene as sort of a safe seat this is seen as sort of a safe seat. He is not in danger up to this point. So i think the question here is whether or not he stays or whether he goes. He is afforded the Presumption Of Innocence but the court of Public Opinion is going all the time. We are getting close to midterm elections here. Melissa republicans might want him to bow out to get someone else in there who could run against the democrat rather than leave him in place and have him josh it will be a process that new york republicans will be able to replace him on the ballot. Question is whether he has Ballot Access at this point and if you get ballots printed. Its complicated. Melissa up next we talk about the dead heat races in ohio and kansas. What they say about the midterms and the president s influence. Well debate. Managing blood sugar
too close to call in ohio. Republican Troy Balderson backed by President Trump is leading Democrat Danny Oconnor by less than one percentage point in the 12th district. Balderson already declaring victory in the race last night but his opponent Danny Oconnor has not conceded. Both of them last night. Im going to promise to you that im going to work relentlessly, relentlessly for this 12th congressional district. America is on the right path. And we are going to keep it going that way. We are fighting for a better america. We went door to door. We went house to house. We made our case for change. We are going to make that case tomorrow. We are not stopping now. Harris President Trump already tweeting his congratulations saying, when i decided to go to ohio for Troy Balderson, he was down in early voting 6436. That was not good. After my speech on Saturday Night there was a big turn for
the better. Now troy wins a great victory during a very tough time of the year for voting. He will win in november. Meanwhile, another dead heat. This is in kansas. Republican primary for governor. Secretary of state kris kobach who President Trump endorsed now with a razorthin lead over the incumbent cover jeff colyer. Republicans c