(Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Representative Chris Collins was permanently barred from serving as an officer or a director of a public company by the Securities and Exchange Commission after the scandal-ridden Republican lawmaker pleaded guilty to criminal insider trading charges in October.
Collins, who represented a district in Western New York, was charged last year with tipping his son, Cameron, to negative results from a clinical trial by Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd.
The ex-lawmaker sat on the board of the Australian biotechnology company and prosecutors said his son passed the inside information to his girlfriend and her family, including her father, Stephen Zarsky. In the four days before the negative drug news was announced, they and others sold more than 1.78 million Innate shares, avoiding losses of about $768,000, authorities said.
Cameron Collins and Zarsky, who also pleaded guilty to criminal charges, have agreed to return about $634,000 and $160,000, respectively, according to a Monday statement from the SEC.
Chris Collins, 69, was the first member of Congress to endorse President Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
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