NEW YORK -- Cameron Collins stood in the same courtroom that his father had six days earlier, following his father's example, even to a ruinous end.His father, Chris Collins, a former Republican congressman from New York, had risen to prominence after becoming the first member of Congress to back
NEW YORK — Cameron Collins stood in the same courtroom that his father had six days earlier, following his father’s example, even to a ruinous end.
At his sentencing last week, Chris Collins, 69, begged the judge to show his son mercy, placing the blame for his son’s role in the scheme on himself. He was the one, prosecutors said, who called his son in the summer of 2017 and, based on an insider tip, encouraged him to sell his shares in an Australian drug company.
Broderick determined that Cameron Collins would not be standing before him if his father had not placed that call, and that he deserved a chance to rebuild his reputation. In 2015, the younger Collins graduated cum laude with a degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University. He and Lauren Zarsky, his future fiancée, met there in their freshman year. He amassed a net worth of more than $21 million, much of it in assets “apparently gifted to him by his father,” according to prosecutors.
Collins called his son, who owned more than 5 million Innate shares, most of it bought by his father. In the six-minute call, Chris Collins told his son that he should try to sell the shares before the trial results became public. Collins said he feared what would happen to his relationship with Zarsky if her parents lost their money. He decided to tell them about the failed drug trial. He let them start selling their shares first and agreed to stagger his own selling to avoid depressing the stock’s price before everyone else sold.
Prosecutors said the illegal trading had been motivated by greed, and they pointed out that neither man needed the money. Cameron Collins and his father had tens of millions of dollars in assets between them. Their lawyers called it an impulsive decision in a moment of weakness.
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