Former Rep. Chris Collins | AP Photo
NEW YORK — Former Rep. Chris Collins was sentenced to 26 months in prison for an insider trading scheme that led to his arrest and resignation from Congress.
The Western New York Republican pleaded guilty in October, accused of passing illicit stock tips to his son from the White House lawn during a Congressional picnic.
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Judge Vernon Broderick handed down the sentence Friday in Manhattan federal court along with a $200,000 fine, after the disgraced Congressman broke down in sobs as he pleaded for mercy for himself and his son.
“I violated my core values and there is no excuse,” Collins said, breathing heavily. “What I have done has marked me for life.”
Collins, the first member of Congress to back Donald Trump for president, was charged in August 2018 with securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to FBI agents — part of an alleged scheme to share confidential information about an Australian biotech company whose board he sat on.
When he learned of the results of a failed trial for a multiple sclerosis drug, he called his son Cameron Collins to alert him — allowing the son and his fiancee’s father to unload Innate Immunotherapeutics stock before it tanked and avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
He initially denied any wrongdoing and was reelected despite being under federal indictment, but ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of lying to the FBI. He resigned his seat ahead of the plea.
“My life has been shattered, my reputation has been shattered but worse my family has been shattered,” Collins said.
But Broderick said prison time was necessary to instill respect for the law. He said he did not buy Collins’ argument that his crime was one of emotion and faulted him for leaving his constituents with no representation in Congress.
“I don’t view this as a spur of the moment loss of judgment,” Broderick said.
Collins faced a maximum of ten years in prison, but agreed in a plea deal to accept a sentence of up to 57 months.
Prosecutors asked the judge to hit him with a sentence of 46 to 57 months, arguing that a hefty sentence was necessary to send the message that abuse of power would not be tolerated.
“Collins’s decision to break the law while making the law — a decision that he made twice, ten months apart — was brazen,” read a memo signed by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, adding that Collins had lied under questioning about the case while holding onto his congressional seat, sending a message to the public that “those in power who make the laws are not required to follow them.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Max Nicholas argued in court Friday that the crime was particularly egregious because Collins was already wealthy. “There was absolutely no need to do this. It was totally gratuitous,” he said.
The former congressman asked to be spared jail time and be sentenced to probation, saying he had shown remorse and already paid a price for his crimes through the loss of his political career.
“Chris is a fundamentally good and decent human being,” said his attorney, Jonathan Barr.
His son Cameron and Stephen Zarsky, the father in law of Cameron’s fiancee, have also pleaded guilty for their role in the insider trading scheme.
Collins asked the judge to show mercy for his son, even if he himself was not spared.
Source: politico.com
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