Frist Knew About Blind Trust Investments (documents)

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050924/ap_on_go_co/frist_stock

By JONATHAN M. KATZ and LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writers Sat Sep 24, 4:05 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was updated several times about his investments in blind trusts during 2002, the last time two weeks before he publicly denied any knowledge of what was in the accounts, documents show.

The updates included stock transactions involving HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by Frist's family.

Prosecutors also have contacted the senator's office, Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said Friday. He said neither the senator nor his office had received a subpoena.

Frist, asked in a television interview in January 2003 whether he should sell his HCA stock, responded: "Well, I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock"

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. If martha stewart can go to jail, then . . .

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Martha's mistake was claiming ignorance. She is/was a licensed

stockbroker, fully aware of SEC regulations and federal laws. She is not some caterer who got lucky.

[shaz]

8. As a Senator

Doesn't Frist make Federal Laws?

[NoPasaran]

11. Just because he makes the laws

is no reason to actually know what's in them. Details are for the little people.

[Occulus]

13. Ignorance of the law.......

If Frist claims ignorance and gets away with it, I guess laws we don't know about really DON'T apply to us.

Paah. He be gonna rot!!

[spotbird]

22. Frist says it was a blind trust,

if he told that to the FBI he committed a crime similar to Martha's, obstruction.

That's not to say he will be treated as Martha was, that would be impossible.

[SpiralHawk]

2. More Republican lies?

Ho hum. Hardly qualifies as news. Right up there with "Dog bites man."

[UpInArms]

4. this was no "blind trust" - Frist ordered the sale of assets

therefore, he was aware of holdings and in control of them.

from the NYTs yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/politics/23frist.html?ex=1213848000&en=f5cf4be6d0da611e&ei=5035&partner=MARKETWATCH

Mr. Frist, whose brother Thomas F. Frist Jr. is chairman emeritus and the largest individual shareholder of the company, disclosed earlier this week that on June 13 he asked the managers of blind trusts controlling many of his assets to sell any of his remaining shares in HCA.

The sales occurred just as the share price reached a new peak and shortly before the company's announcement in mid-July of lower-than-expected quarterly results sent the price tumbling.

Mr. Frist, the Senate majority leader and a potential presidential candidate, initially placed more than $10 million in shares of the company in his trusts, but his spokesman said he could not determine how much remained at the time of the sale.

this proves that he knew of the assets, directed the time of the sale of the assets and benefited from that at a time when insider knowledge would allow him to profit at the expense of others (whoever bought those shares without the same knowledge Frist and his family possessed.

(edited for grammar)

[UpInArms]

7. from Knight-Ridder

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12726229.htm

excerpt:

Frist, a Tennessee Republican and a potential presidential candidate in 2008, directed trustees of his blind trust to sell the stock on June 13. The sale occurred in stages and was complete by July 8. On July 13, HCA cautioned investors that it wouldn't meet its earnings forecast. The news drove the stock's price down 9 percent that day to $50.05. Since then, it's slipped further, closing Friday at $47.60.

Typically, the SEC and federal prosecutors investigate such sales to determine whether the seller benefited from illegal insider information. Frist's brother is the chairman emeritus of HCA.

...more...

Wow! Check out that incredible timing! Sales were completed by July 8 and the official public announcement came out on !

Whew! What a "lucky" uninformed (?????) move!!!

[Roland99]

19. July 8 was a Fri. Only 3 business days later the announcement was made.

[fob]

28. I see the "bad earnings report" info alot but what about the record FINES

just announced? There's NO WAY frist didn't have a heads-up on that coming down the pike.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. I think a striped jumpsuit will accentuate the color of his eyes.

Be all you can be, Fristy!

[calimary]

20. How' bout orange to bring out the roses in the good doctor's complexion?

A nice orange jumpsuit maybe?

Stunning to see how much corruption republi-CONS can be okay with - as long as it only happens in their own camp.

I think the new GOP slogan should be "Do as I Say, NOT as I Do."

[UpInArms]

6. seems that HCA and "Senator" Frist are mighty cosy

so why wouldn't they (his brother and father) tell him what was going on financially with HCA?

http://www.pww.org/article/view/4993/1/208/

excerpt:

Frist is the expert on profits in health, especially hospitals. His family runs the largest for-profit hospital system in the United States and the world, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). He is well aware that it is not possible for for-profit hospitals to charge affordable rates and still turn the huge profits he and his investors demand. They have been caught bilking Medicare and Medicaid for billions of dollars, yet they make policy.

The Columbia/HCA Medicare fraud case holds the record as the largest Medicare fraud case in history. HCA suddenly agreed to pay the biggest fines in the history of Medicare just before Frist took over his leadership position in the Senate. HCA is owned by Frist’s father and brother who were both implicated in the fraud.

Why would HCA choose to settle the fraud suit and "pay the biggest fines in the history of Medicare" just at that moment (when Frist was elevated to the Senate leadership)?

Awwww - come on folks (lurkers and other readers out there) think about it for more than 2 seconds. These people are always covering each other's backsides.

Let's make this one cost the greedy pigs a bit more than just money.

[snippy]

9. Another day, another felony. How very republican. n/t

[Overseas]

15. You said it ! We are so accustomed to these sick ethics

that this particular thread is rather quiet.

[BiggJawn]

10. Wow. An Inside Trader AND a Vivisectionist!

Took care of that slipping stock like he did the stray cats in his med school days....

[MADem]

26. A prolifer who makes a bundle on abortion services!

No dichotomy there, is there???

[DebinTx]

12. This is a outright lie by Frist

"Well, I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust. So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock"

And everytime Cheney spouts the same nonsense is also a lie. Just because the stock is in a blind trust doesn't mean that they don't own any - they're not suppose to control it, it's held in limbo. A sale within the blind trust should be scrutinized beyond belief.

[Eurobabe]

14. there goes '08

too bad buddy boy, your slip is showing...

[Mike_The_Computer]

16. Anything that hurts the Video Diagnostician's chances in 2008

works for me. We certainly don't need THIS effin' christo-hypocrite in the Oval Office.

[susu369]

17. Greedy People Beget Greedy People

Frist family heritage.

:evilgrin:

[nvliberal]

18. That should cook him for 2008.

Not that Frist had any chance anyway, for he's not enough of a puppet for the neocons, but this should put the nail in his aspirations.

[Roland99]

21. Wow! I'm smelling JAIL TIME!

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Much as I love this, and much as I dislike Frist

in many ways, this is a 'who cares?' story - at least in terms of a possible 08 run by Frist. he lost that chance during the Schindler Family Circus. He won NO points for his deplorable performance and his actions - saved for eternity in tape and digital HiDef format will haunt his reptilian ass until the day he dies.

What this story does is simply stand as one more example of Republican greed, hubris, obfuscation, and duplicity.

Leader frist, I hope you rot in hell - after you rot in jail.

[spooky3]

25. what about the possibility that Frist may be driven out of his

leadership role by this?

I think that would be worthy of notice.

It could be that the Rethugs would just find another RW clone to put into the role. But if they are thinking about the midterm elections, they might replace him with someone who has a brain and some semblance of ethics instead.

[Mr_Spock]

24. Clink-clink - "sir, it's only a 6 month term, I think you can handle it"

He's going down.

[loudsue]

27. Republicans control the vote counting machines.

This will no more hurt Frist in 2008, than total incompetence hurt boosh in 2004, or any more than complete criminality has hurt DeLay.

They would not be doing all these things so blatantly, and in our faces, if they weren't TOTALLY confident that they control the votes. They are so obvious, to those of us who know what is going on with the election fraud.

:kick::kick::kick:

[arikara]

29. They just can't help themselves when a bit of their mammon is at stake

The greed just boggles the mind. I mean how much do these guys need? They'll never use it all, they can't take it with them.

[BR_Parkway]

30. Funny, back in 2003, his 'trustee' was supposed to diversify out of HCA

From 4/21/2003

In an effort to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, Frist put his assets in a blind trust under Tennessee law when he was first elected to the Senate in 1994, even though the ethics committee told him it wasn't necessary. Under state law, the trust had to be diversified, and the senator was never told how much remained of his holdings in his family's company.

Frist held that trust until he won his second term in 2000, when he put his assets into a federally qualified blind trust under the auspices of the Senate Ethics Committee, with additional restrictions.

By placing his assets in a blind trust, the senator relinquished control over his holdings to an independent trustee with a banking or investment company. Frist has not been told anything about how his assets are being managed, except that he would be notified if the trustee sold off a stock or sold enough so that a stock's value dipped to $1,500 or less, said Frist's former chief of staff, Mark Tipps, who helped him set up his first blind trust.

<snip>

Tipps said that under federal trust law, a trustee managing assets that are heavily invested in one stock or just a few different companies is required to immediately begin diversifying the holdings.

"So whatever component was HCA stock at the beginning, there's significantly less today," Tipps said. "It would be highly unlikely that he would have millions of dollars of HCA stock under that rule, and no one knows what he's got."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/legislative/senate/2003-04-21-frist-healthcare-ethics_x.htm