Chris Collins
⚠️ All Corruption Flags (3)
On August 8, 2018, the FBI arrested Rep. Chris Collins (the first sitting U.S. representative to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2016) and his son Cameron on federal insider trading and false-statements charges. In 2017, while attending a White House event, Collins received a call from the CEO of Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech firm on whose board Collins served, informing him that the company's experimental multiple sclerosis drug had failed a clinical trial. Collins immediately alerted his son Cameron, who sold his shares before the failure became public — avoiding approximately $570,000 in losses.
On October 1, 2019, Collins resigned from Congress and pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to the FBI, both felonies. On January 17, 2020, U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick sentenced Collins to 26 months in federal prison. He began serving his sentence on October 13, 2020 at the Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola.
On December 22, 2020, after Collins had served approximately 2 months of his 26-month sentence, President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon. The White House stated the pardon was granted 'at the request of many members of Congress.'