Insiders Painted Sunny Picture as They Sold off HCA Stock

[cal04]

While insiders at HCA Inc. were selling millions of dollars of their own stock this year, they were also painting a sunny picture of the company's outlook for investors. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the sale of HCA stock by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family founded the company that grew into the nation's largest for-profit health care chain.

The SEC turned its initial inquiry into a formal investigation of the company, HCA announced Thursday. The company said it is cooperating with investigators. Frist's office said Wednesday that he had gotten notice of a formal investigation, which grants subpoena powers to investigators to obtain information and documents.

On June 14, the day after Frist ordered his shares sold, HCA officers at a Goldman Sachs health care conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif., spoke optimistically about the company's prospects. Victor Campbell, HCA's senior vice president of corporate communications and government relations, soothed investor concerns about unpaid patient debts and worries about patient volumes. He also advocated for a still-pending Senate bill that would limit the establishment of physician-owned specialty hospitals and called Washington "my favorite place ... where I spend at least a day or two a week."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDU0V47EE.html

[Bob3]

1. Alright is anybody surprised at this? Anybody at all?

You in the back yes? You are? Why? Oh you're from Mars - You just got here. I see. You say in the old days companies only robbed the general public. Well nowadays insiders steal from everybody - the General public, stockholders, the government whoever has a dime they can latch onto. Finks, Greedheads, and monsters run the world today - which explains a lot about the state of the world.