Wyden: Collins Indictment Highlights Corruption in Trump's Washington

Ranking Finance Democrat Raised Ethics Concerns about Rep. Collins and Former HHS Secretary Tom Price During Price’s Confirmation Process

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said today that the insider trading charges brought against Rep. Chris Collins should come as no surprise after the role he played peddling shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics, Ltd., to family, friends and political allies, which was uncovered during the nomination of disgraced former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.

“The Collins indictment represents everything Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have stood for since taking office: insiders getting special deals while working Americans are left in the dust,” Wyden said. “As I made clear last year, Tom Price’s unethical stock trading should have disqualified him from becoming Secretary of Health and Human Services, but Republicans broke longstanding committee practice to force him through anyway. Today’s indictment is further proof that Republicans failed their duty to thoroughly examine allegations that Secretary Price and Rep. Collins used their public positions for personal gain.”

In a floor speech last year, Wyden highlighted the ethical problems and legal questions that arose from Price’s purchase of hundreds of thousands of shares of discounted Innate stock, and his relationship with Collins, who was a director on the company’s board. That speech, including important documents submitted to the Congressional Record, can be found here on pages S1055 to S1061 (pages 39 to 45 in the PDF). Highlights of those remarks can be found below and video of the full remarks can be found here.

Key remarks: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4743922/senator-wyden-lays-secretary-prices-sweetheart-buy-innate-immunotherapeutics-stock

Wyden made numerous inquiries, including one to the CEO of Innate, Simon Wilkinson, asking for more details on any special treatment Price may have received when purchasing stock.

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