SEC v. Christopher Collins, et al., Lauren Zarksy, Dorothy Zarsky (insider trading, 2018)

Settled

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In August 2018 the SEC charged Congressman Christopher Collins, his son Cameron and Stephen Zarsky with trading on negative drug trial results for Innate Immunotherapeutics. Lauren and Dorothy Zarsky settled in August 2018, and on 9 December 2019 the SEC announced settlements with the other three, including an officer-and-director bar for Collins and about $794,000 of combined disgorgement and interest for the other two, subject to court approval.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$42k

Disgorgement

$42k

Prejudgment interest

$1.8k

Total relief

$85.9k

Alleged gain

$700k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The SEC alleged that Collins, an independent director, learned of the failed trial by email and called his son, who tipped Zarsky; the two sold nearly 1.4 million shares before the announcement, after which the price fell over 92 percent. The SEC asked for an officer-and-director bar against Collins.

Lauren Zarsky agreed to disgorge $19,440 with $839 interest and pay $19,440, and Dorothy Zarsky $22,600 with $975 interest and $22,600, subject to court approval; Lauren Zarsky also accepted a suspension from practising before the SEC as an accountant. The stored money is the sum of the two Zarsky settlements, and the $700,000 is the alleged avoided losses of Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky.

A December 2019 SEC release shows the other three defendants settled too. Christopher Collins, Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky consented to final judgments that resolve all claims against them and enjoin them from further antifraud violations, without any finding by a court. Collins consented to a permanent officer-and-director bar for public companies. Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky agreed to disgorge avoided losses with prejudgment interest, totalling $634,299 and $159,880 respectively. Those two figures combine disgorgement and interest, so they are not added to the money fields, which still show only the two Zarsky settlements. All three had pleaded guilty in the parallel criminal case. The release says the settlements were subject to approval by the judge, and we did not see the entered judgments, so the December 2019 announcement date is recorded as the resolution date.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2018-08-10 Litigation release published
2. 2019-12-09 SEC announces settlements with Christopher Collins, Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky, subject to court approval

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release
• SEC litigation release LR-24687 (settlements)

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.