Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., was arrested Wednesday on charges related to insider trading.
A federal grand jury accused the Buffalo-area lawmaker of passing nonpublic information about a biotech company to his son, who traded on the information and passed it along to others.
Collins was indicted along with his son, Cameron, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron's fiance.
According to the newly-unsealed indictment, timely sales based on inside information allowed Cameron Collins, Zarsky and others to avoid losses totaling more than $768,000 when the biotech company, Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, failed a key clinical trial in June of last year.
Rep. Collins was a director of the company and also a major investor. He and the other defendants are charged with securities and wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to investigators.
The congressman, through his attorneys, denied any wrongdoing.
"We will answer the charges filed against Congressman Collins in Court and will mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name," attorneys Jonathan Barr and Jonathan New said in a statement. "We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated."
The attorneys note that Rep. Collins is not accused of selling any of his own shares, which lost 92 percent of their value after the adverse results of the clinical trial were released.
According to the indictment, the elder Collins was not able to sell his stock because it was held in Australia, where trading had been halted in advance of the company's announcement.
Collins' dealings with Inate Immunotherapeutics are also the subject of a Congressional ethics probe. He had promoted the stock to former Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. Price's own holdings in the company became an issue when he was nominated to be President Trump's first Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Collins, who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, was the first member to publicly endorse Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. He also served on Trump's transition team.
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