The US Securities and Exchange Commission is prosecuting Congressman Chris Collins (whose estimated net worth in 2015 was $66 million) and other HNWs for insider trading.

The indictment has not stopped the Republican congressman from wanting the voters of the 27th District of New York to re-elect him when his present term ends in November. He told reporters that he was going to "mount a vigorous defence in court to clear my name" and would be "fully vindicated and exonerated." He maintains that he acted properly and within the law at all times.

The SEC's complaint states that on 22 June last year, Collins was on the board of directors of Innate Immunotherapeutics. He learnt "material, non-public information" about clinical trial results for a drug that Innate was developing. That evening, Innate’s CEO emailed him and the other directors to tell them that the results were extremely bad. Seconds later he allegedly tried to telephone his son, Cameron Collins, 25. After several failed attempts, he reached him and they spoke for six minutes. Over the next two trading days, and while the clinical trial results were still not public, Collins Jr sold a total of nearly 1.4 million Innate shares. According to the SEC, father and son spoke by telephone at least nine times during that period.

Collins Jr was at home with his girlfriend at the time of the first phone conversation. Shortly after the call ended, both of them allegedly drove to her parents’ home. Within minutes of their arrival, according to the SEC, the girlfriend’s mother took steps to sell her Innate shares. Before the markets opened the next morning, Collins Jr allegedly placed his first order to sell Innate shares. The regulator accuses him, three days later, of ringing up a friend who had previously bought Innate shares on his recommendation. It says that the friend placed an order to sell all of his Innate shares only five minutes later. The SEC alleges that Collins Sr and Jr and the girlfriend's father (Stephen Zarsky, 66) all broke section 10(b) Securities Exchange Act 1934 (and Rule 10b-5 issued thereunder) and s17(a)(1) Securities Act 1933. All originally hoped that the drug would receive "accelerated approval" from the US Food and Drug Administration. The SEC wants to persuade the courts to order the defendants to disgorge, with prejudgment interest, all illicit trading profits, avoided losses or other ill-gotten gains.

Steven Peikin of the SEC summed up the situation: “The investigation yielded a detailed footprint left by the defendants, revealing their frantic efforts to sell shares and warn others before Innate announced bad news.”

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is pressing related criminal charges.