"FRIST INVESTIGATION: Status Changed to "FORMAL" from "informal"

[Pirate Smile]

From Daily Kos:

FRIST INVESTIGATION: Status Changed to "FORMAL" from "informal"
by Glic
Wed Sep 28th, 2005 at 17:26:53 PDT
On MSNBC, Nora O'Donnell, on "Coundown with Keith Olbermann", just reported that the SEC investigation into Bill Frist has just been changed to "formal" status from "informal" status.

This gives the SEC a much wider latitude to investigate.

More as links becomes available. Nothing on the MSNBC website yet. Thanks to chicagovigilante for the link to the Busines Week http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8CTIAB04.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db story:

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is examining a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has upgraded its initial informal inquiry to a formal investigation. The change means the agency can issue subpoenas for documents rather than just requesting them. Federal prosecutors also are investigating the Tennessee Republican's recent sale of stock in HCA Inc. about two weeks before its price dropped. Frist's family founded the big hospital operating company. The SEC has made the investigation formal, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agency does not comment publicly on its inquiries.

Glic's diary :: ::

Frist ordered the stock sold from several blind trusts this summer, about two weeks before HCA issued a disappointing earnings forecast that drove its share price down almost 16 percent by mid-July. He sold the stock at a time when top executives and directors of HCA — including the chief executive and the treasurer — also were selling off shares worth a total of $112 million. Aides to the majority leader, who is widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2008, say he ordered his trustee to sell his shares to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

It's like the poster on FreeRepublic so eleganty espoused: "I think we have given them to much rope to hang ourselves." Indeed. Update <2005-9-28 22:18:28 by Glic>:

Think Progress has the Frist timeline. http://thinkprogress.org/frist-stock-timeline

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/28/202653/616

[libnnc]

1. kick

[Tatiana]

2. Status is changed from informal to FORMAL.

Frist will be the next to be indicted. Unless he cops a plea. But you know these evil bastards don't like to admit defeat.

Oh well, there goes his pResidential hopes....

[mcctatas]

6. Thank God for that...

I would hate to go from a brain-dead president to one who does not even recognize brain dead!

[Ladyhawk]

19. Bwahahahahaha! n/t

[speedoo]

7. Let's hope Frist is NOT the next to be indicted.

His indictment will take at least several weeks.

Fitzgerald will hopefully be issuing indictments relative to the plame leak sooner than that.

[Tatiana]

15. I hope so too.

But this investigation is a lot more clear cut than the Plame investigation. It shouldn't take near as long to gather evidence that Frist committed insider trading among other violations. They could have enough evidence in a matter of weeks.

[speedoo]

20. I hope you're right.

Normally I would agree that a Frist indictment should not take long.

Unfortunately, we know these rethugs are very good at obstructing, hiding, delaying, etc.

[FreedomAngel82]

36. Why not all at once?

Wouldn't it be nice to see them all go together??

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Why would this damage his Presidential hopes?

He's planning to run as a Republican, isn't he?

[Tatiana]

28. Point well-taken.

;)

[FreedomAngel82]

35. Good!

Bye bye Frist.

[spindrifter]

3. Today Is the Beginning of the Biggest March of All!

Looks like we the people better tie on our walking shoes as we begin the big march against corruption in government. True family values, I think.

[joanne]

4. Another Repuke in trouble

The "family values" party.

:party: :party: :party: :party:

:toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[JNelson6563]

5. This just gets better and better

finally their arrogance is bringing them down. It's been a long time coming.

:toast:

[longship]

8. ROFL

"I think we have given them to <sic> much rope to hang ourselves."
:rofl:

Or as another Repug recently said:
"We've got them right where they want us."

[populistdriven]

9. No It Doesn't - Now they will use the NUCLEAR OPTION!

Wonder if Bush is ready for that now?

:rofl:

[MADem]

10. Sniff, sniff...is that TOAST I smell??? nt

[Sydnie]

24. Why ... I do believe it is

[MADem]

29. Heh, heh

We need a whole rack of toast with all the famous players depicted!

[StefanX]

11. Couldn't happen to a nicer cat-killer

Remember, Martha got sent to the slammer for making $50,000 based on insider knowledge.

Frist is alleged to have made $2-6 MILLION.

[grannylib]

16. And won't he look fetching in stripes, followed by an ankle bracelet??

[me b zola]

31. I'm sure the guys will take a liking to him

:rofl:

[Ouabache]

33. but he won't get an appremtice show when he gets out of the slammer

and I bet the curtains he makes for his own cell window look shitty too.

[spindrifter]

45. But he'll be able to get rid of all the bugs

[AuntiBush]

12. Two Down in 1 Day. How 'bout a Newly Declared "Holiday!"

Attn: Holier-the-Thou Religious Right
Where is you're outrage?

Won't hold my Democrat breathe waiting.

:toast::beer::beer::toast:

[Erika]

13. The GOP house of corruption is toppling

This corporation is family held. As Par Buchanan said, it is not rational to think one family member would not notify the other members. Insider trading.

[KoKo]

14. I heard his whole FAMILY SOLD at the same time...which makes it worse!

Maybe that's why it's a "Formal Inquiry" rather than informal.

I'm sorry I don't have a link...read it in a legitimate article today...just have to take my word for it.

They have alot of balls to do this, though. Messingwith SEC is not good. The Chimp got away with it on Arbusto...but then his father was a sitting President and former VP under the ST. Ronnie. Frist is a nobody, even though he has power...he doesn't have the Bush pedigree.

[Tatiana]

17. Probably changed to a formal investigation because folks weren't

cooperating in turning over necessary documents. Now they have subpoena power.

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Ooo that would definitley show the truth of the ordeal!

Frist definitley is a nobody and I think Bush would sacrafice him to save himself.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

18. Happy Days Are Here at Last

Happy days are here at last

They're finally paying for the past

Let's raise a glass and have a blast

Happy days are here at last

:party::applause: :toast: :applause: :party:

[goforit]

21. Would you say Bush is getting even with Frist?

[me b zola]

32. If that is the case...

...then let's hope that Frist returns the favor :)

[FreedomAngel82]

38. I doubt Bush will help Frist

He didn't help DeLay so why would he Frist? He'll get as far away from Frist as he can. Just like DeLay, so I think they're both going away. Bush only gets help. He doesn't offer help unless he gets something in return (see promoting Roberts and Rice and Wolfowitz). If someone helps him then he gives them a promotion. Frist hasn't done really anything for Bush unlike Roberts with Florida and the rest with Iraq etc.

[me b zola]

46. You misunderstood

I replied to someone who was asking if Frists' problems could have been helped along by bush as revenge for frist going against bush on stem cell research. My response was that maybe frist could return the favor by cooperating with one of the investigations of bush...maybe like a conversation with Fitzgerald. Just a little wishful thinking, but hey, a girl can dream ;)


:hi:

[Spiffarino]

22. For all their lip service to "moral values" their thirst for power...

...turns out to have been driven by simple greed. The Republicans have put their apparatus in place to gain perpetual power for nothing loftier than to enrich themselves.

Hannah Arendt was right about the banality of evil.

[FizzFuzz]

26. that's the truth

and the pious bushites at work STILL strut their "I'm a strong Bush supporter" crap?? Fundies and dittoheads, the banality of unquestioning trust in authority figures....

weird

and then there are those of us who knew right from the start;

you don't happen to know of any Psych researchers/writers who have written on this kind of thing--why is one person, even a reasonably intelligent one, so malignantly blind, and another aware of the truth right away? That is something I'd really like to read.

[nonconformist]

23. This is a great fucking day!

I think this calls for a celebratory bong hit or something. w00t!

Can we hope for the trifecta (Rove)?!

[cowboy hula girl]

25. This may end up being a double header.... Frist is a loser.

[newyawker99]

43. Hi cowboy hula girl!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nothing Without Hope]

30. Thanks for the encouraging news. For the BACK STORY, incl. HCA FRAUD

on a truly massive - in fact record-breaking - scale in 2000-2003, see this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4846742
thread title: NYT on FRIST’s possible insider trading - and HUGE 2000-3 HCA FRAUD

Of course, Frist didn't know anything about the years of pervasive fraud in his family's company either....

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. More of the back story: looks like FRIST CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW VIOLATION

Right in character with the current insider trading scenario. Note the final sentence in this excerpt from the report on Frist's campaign finance violations at the "Beyond DeLay" web site that is supposed to be about the 13 most corrupt members of congress:

Sen. Frist’s financial activities are of concern not only because they indicate illegality, but also because they suggest that the Senator went to great lengths to protect his own fortune, while squandering that of his contributors.

http://www.beyonddelay.org/beyond_delay/sen_bill_frist_r_tn
(snip)

Campaign Finance Law Violations
Sen. Frist’s financial problems began in June 2000, when he took $1 million of the donations that had been contributed to his 2000 Senate campaign, Frist 2000, Inc., and invested it in the stock market, where it promptly began losing money. This loss was compounded by Sen. Frist’s efforts, in November 2000, to collect $1.2 million he had lent his 1994 Senate campaign committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc., out of his personal funds. Of the $6.6 million Sen. Frist had lent his 1994 committee, $1.2 million still had not been repaid by the end of 2000. As a result of the stock market losses, however, Frist 2000, Inc. did not have enough money to repay the loan.

Sen. Frist solved this problem by having the 1994 and the 2000 campaign committees jointly take out a $1.44 million bank loan at a cost of $10,000 a month in interest. While loan documents demonstrate that the two campaign committees jointly borrowed the money, it was Sen. Frist who personally signed the promissory note in two places: as President of Bill Frist for Senate, Inc. and as President of Frist 2000, Inc. On November 28, 2000, Sen. Frist used that money to pay himself back with a check for $1.25 million.

Although bank records show Frist 2000 Inc. as the borrower, Frist 2000 did not report this debt on its Federal Election Commission ("FEC") disclosure forms. Instead, Sen. Frist’s 1994 campaign committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc., which was then dormant, was the only committee to declare the loan, making it difficult for the Senator’s donors and political opponents to understand how financially insecure his campaign really was.

The Federal Election Campaign Act requires each treasurer of a political committee to file reports of receipts and disbursements signed by the treasurer. Any loans made or received by the political action committee must be included in those reports. The fact that the $1.44 million loan was disclosed only by one authorized committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc., and not also by Frist 2000, Inc., even though the two committees jointly took out the loan, suggests that Frist 2000, Inc. committed a knowing and willful violation of the reporting requirements of 2 U.S.C. §434(b). Moreover, Sen. Frist’s financial activities are of concern not only because they indicate illegality, but also because they suggest that the Senator went to great lengths to protect his own fortune, while squandering that of his contributors.

(snip)

Let's make sure that the reporters writing about Frist KNOW ABOUT THIS STORY. More research on it needs to be done by a professional journalist willing to dig for the facts and put them together.

[FreedomAngel82]

39. Yes

This is really big and Frist is in just as much trouble as DeLay and now Frist is lying about it. I hope he goes to jail like Martha Stewart did. If she goes to jail for lying about it so should Frist! The republicans have to learn they are not above the law and they don't make reality.

[Nothing Without Hope]

40. Absolutely DO NOT MISS the FIRST STOCK TIMELINE at Think Progress:

The link is given in the OP of this thread, but it's not discussed and you might have missed it.

http://thinkprogress.org/frist-stock-timeline

It is absolutely devastating. Frist is so obviously shown as a greedy liar, and he clearly both knew about the HCA stock in his "blind" trust AND he has used his position in the Senate to benefit his family company. Conflict of interest big time.

Through it all, including the campaign finance violation story, there is this consistent thread of absolute greed and disregard for anyone else's welfare.

I'm not going to excerpt that great Think Progress timeline because you need to go through it step by step. It's not all that long, and the side-by-side events make the truth so blazingly obvious!!!

[mom cat]

41. House and Senate leaders both on the same day. Now that in what i call a

real feeding frenzy> Go get um!

[txaslftist]

42. Bye Bye Martha Frist.

[Hubert Flottz]

44. The Frist-full-of-dollars-gate is getting series!1!1!101

The GOP is in voo-doo doo-doo!1!1!1!111!!!1111!