NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/opinion/23fri2.html?th&emc=thSenator Frist's Stock Sale
Published: September 23, 2005
It's long been known that the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a man deeply involved in rewriting the nation's health-care and medical-malpractice laws, derived most of his wealth from HCA, the hospital company his father and brother helped found. For years, Mr. Frist assured critics that there was no conflict of interest because his HCA money was held in a blind trust.
Blind trust is a term frequently tossed around in political circles. It suggests a complete severing of ties with investments that might create conflicts of interest. Once inside, the money is supposed to lie forgotten, until a fortune pops up at retirement like a wrinkled $5 bill found in the wash.
But that won't happen in Mr. Frist's case because he decided on June 13 to sell the shares. HCA stock, which had plunged below $20 a share back in 1999 because of a federal fraud investigation, had been climbing steadily, reaching a high of $58.22 on June 22, nine days after Mr. Frist told his managers to start selling. By July 8, all the shares of HCA held by Mr. Frist, his wife and his children had been sold. Five days later, a bad earnings report drove the price down 9 percent in a single day. Since then it has dropped even further.
Mr. Frist's office claims that the sale was intended to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest as he pursued his legislative agenda. But the emergence of this concern seems strangely convenient for a man who's been pursuing the same agenda throughout his Senate career. The Securities and Exchange Commission should look into this sale.
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