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 from the White House lawn during a Congressional picnic.
Judge Vernon Broderick handed down the sentence Friday in Manhattan federal court after Collins made an emotional plea for leniency.
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.
Collins initially denied 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.
He 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.”
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.
His son, Cameron, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron’s fiancee, have also pleaded guilty for their role in the insider trading scheme.