Quiver Quantitative, the alternative trading data platform, has been diligently monitoring Congressional stock trading activities, an increasingly contentious issue.
In their recent findings, the platform disclosed multiple violations of the STOCK Act by US politicians and suspicious trades in defense and war stocks. Despite these potential concerns, Congress supposedly opted against including a ban on lawmakers trading defense stocks in its new bill.
Adding to this subject of growing controversy, a December 7 post from Quiver highlighted another striking revelation. Notably, the X account said that a previously convicted US Representative for insider trading is making a bid for Congress again in the 2024 mandate.
The conviction
According to its Thursday tweet, Quiver Quantitative said US representative Chris Collins is running for US Congress in the 2024 elections.
The former New York congressman was sentenced to 26 months in prison in early 2020 for an illegal insider stock tip that he gave to his son regarding a biopharmaceutical company’s unsuccessful drug trial.
At the time, the judge sentenced Collins for one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of lying to the FBI. Additionally, he was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine and one-year supervised release.
However, Collins served just a little more than two months of his 26-month sentence. Notably, the Republican was fully pardoned by ex-President Donald Trump, alongside Representative Duncan Hunter.
Hunter and Collins were among the Republicans who were first in Congress to support Trump when he ran for president.
Collins to run for Congress in Florida
Earlier this year, reports revealed that Collins was assembling a team to run for the 19th Congressional District in Florida in 2024.
The ex-Congressman, an avid supporter of Donald Trump – who is running for presidential office again – said he would have never been convicted by a jury for the securities fraud allegations.
“I never would have been convicted by a jury. Which they also knew. So they leveraged my 24-year-old son with a promise of leniency if I agreed to plead. and I did what any loving father would do. I gave the DOJ what they wanted. My resignation from Congress, which silenced my voice supporting Donald Trump on cable news.”
– he told the crowd during the United We Stand Trump Flotilla 2024 event in Florida earlier this year.
If the Representative runs and wins, he would become the first person in 55 years to represent two different states in Congress.
Source: https://finbold.com/us-rep-convicted-of-insider-trading-running-for-congress-in-2024/