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Law360 (August 4, 2020, 10:10 PM EDT ) Former Rep. Christopher Collins asked a New York federal judge Tuesday to give him another two months of freedom before he has to report for his sentence on insider trader charges — his third time requesting a delay due to COVID-19, which he said has been "particularly acute and potentially disastrous" for prisons.
In January, U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick sentenced Collins to two years in federal prison for leaking inside information to help his son avoid biotech investment losses and then lying to the FBI. He was initially ordered to report to a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, in March, but a processing delay pushed his date to April. Then the pandemic hit, and he got his report date pushed to June and then to Aug. 18.
Now Collins, 70, wants to wait until October to self-surrender, writing in a letter to Judge Broderick that the pandemic situation continues to deteriorate. The government doesn't oppose his request, he noted.
Collins pointed to Federal Bureau of Prisons data, saying that federal prisons have seen nearly 10,700 cases and 106 deaths among prisoners. Those numbers are "certainly underreported," he added.
"[G]iven current conditions in BOP prisons, Mr. Collins, who is an elderly, first-time, non-violent offender, would face a serious and unnecessary risk to his health and well-being," his attorneys wrote.
Collins continued, "As courts have recognized, adding additional inmates to a BOP system under strain should be avoided at present. Good cause exists for granting the requested relief."
The former congressman copped to securities fraud conspiracy and making false statements in October. With his guilty plea, he admitted to using his position as a board member of Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics to help his son Cameron and others avoid nearly $768,000 in losses.
Prosecutors said that after Collins learned that a test of Innate's experimental multiple sclerosis drug had gone badly, he passed the inside information to his son in a June 2017 call from the White House lawn, allowing him and others to dump their shares in the biotech company before the news was public.
Department of Justice representatives and counsel for Collins didn't immediately return requests for comment late Tuesday.
As recently as April, the government was represented by Scott Hartman, Max Nicholas and Damian Williams of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Chris Collins is represented by Jonathan New, Kendall Wangsgard and Jonathan Barr of BakerHostetler.
The case is U.S. v. Collins et al., case number 1:18-cr-00567, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Additional reporting by Jody Godoy. Editing by Gemma Horowitz.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
