Frist Sells Shares in Hospital Corporation

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050921/ap_on_go_co/frist_shares

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.

Frist held an undisclosed amount of stock in Hospital Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tenn., the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. On June 13, he instructed the trustee managing the assets to sell his HCA shares and those of his wife and children, said Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Frist.

Frist, a surgeon first elected to the Senate in 1994, had been criticized for maintaining the holdings while dealing with legislation affecting the medical industry and managed care. He has insisted that he was in the clear ethically because the shares were in a blind trust.

"To avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest Senator Frist went beyond what ethics requires and sold the stock," Call said. Asked why he had never done so before, she said, "I don't know that he's been worried about it in the past."

[cantstandbush]

1. H,mmmm. Martha Stewart went to jail for something similar.

Will Frist go to jail?

[politicaholic]

6. Martha went for obstruction of justice...

I doubt Frist will go anywhere, but to the bank.

[CONN]

51. ..and Frist will go to the Whitehouse...

remember Republican can do no wrong. Even though it seems on the surface to be more of a case of inside trading -- I'm sure it's all fine. But beware it's not a good practice for DUers

[Bleeding Blue]

54. Maybe Martha

Will help him with accessories to add that "special touch" to his cell.

[merwin]

2. To avoid a conflict of interest, he illegally bailed right before it went

down the tube? That's called insider trading if I remember correctly, right?

[Igel]

14. Only if he had access to inside information.

And that needs to be proven.

"To keep the trust blind, Frist was not allowed to know how much HCA stock he owned, Call said, but he was allowed to ask for all of it to be sold" is an interesting comment, though.

[merwin]

17. So suddenly right before the stock tanks he pulls his stocks?

Hmm...

He's the fucking luckiest person in the world I guess.

[Democat]

20. All that matters now is the "appearance" of impropriety

Let the prosecuters deal with his real crimes later. For now, Democrats should be taking him down and damaging his reputation just like the Republicans constantly try to do to Democrats.

What he did looks like a crime and the American people have a right to know that it looks like he is a criminal.

With Republicans in control, he will probably never be charged, but that doesn't matter if Democrats can make sure that he is damaged with the public by his actions.

It's time that Democrats learned to play by Republican rules.

Frist should be taken down by elected Democrats.

[Igel]

45. It's the difference between an accusation and guilt.

One involves suspicion. The other involves proof.

[Democat]

19. Nothing needs to be "proven" for elected Dems to attack him relentlessly

We need to give the Republicans some of their own medicine.

It's the perfect time for the Democratic Party to do damage to Frist and all Republicans by getting on every TV show and demanding that he resign immediatly over this "scandal" that is "worse than what Martha Stewart went to jail for".

When are we going to learn to fight like the Republicans fight?

They control every branch of government for a reason.

[MADem]

32. ...about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report

How very Harken-like of him!!!! Geez, he's as lucky as the monkey!!

[Igel]

44. True, but I prefer attacks based on facts and reality,

not innuendo and logical fallacies.

He sold his stock; it soon dropped in price. Apart from chronology, we got suspicion. Esp. if he didn't even know for sure he owned any (presumably he knew he used to own it, and might have stilled owned some).

[TankLV]

52. Boy, you sure are wasting a lot of energy being "concerned" about

"fairness" to a repuke!

I for one question YOUR intentions and motives.

[cliss]

53. maybe "God" told him to sell the stock?

That would be an understandable reason to sell the stock, I suppose...
Nobody would blame him for that!

[salin]

21. Didn't the courts just make a huge ruling against HCA per

defrauding the govt ala medicare and medicaid? Perhaps another reason, along with the poor earnings, to bail? And perhaps another angle upon which one could ask if he had inside information per how things were leaning in that decision.

[electropop]

29. Exactly.

And please explain to me how putting the shares of your company in a "blind trust" makes the slightest ethical difference?

[AzDar]

3. Well, by all means , this AT LEAST demands the overzealous

scrutiny that Martha underwent, no?

[dweller]

5. At least an ankle bracelet ...

and a shock collar.

dp

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. I thought the whole point in setting up a ""blind" trust in the first

place is that they were not under the direct control of the person the trust was set up for. Isn't this supposed to make us feel like people in places of public trust cannot profit from their insider status? I'm obviously missing something - someone set me straight please.

[skids]

11. I'm wondering that too.

In a "blind trust" you're not supposed to know what stocks are in the trust. If Frist knew HCA stocks were in the trust, like the article infers, how could that have been a blind trust?

Someone who knows stocks please chime up...

[electropop]

30. It's a load of BS.

If he knows which stocks are in the trust, and fully controls their disposition, it's not "blind." He just thinks we are.

[personman]

46. All the article says is...

that means he wasn't allowed to know how much stock he owned.

WTF difference does that make?

[susu369]

7. It's not ladylike but

DAMN......

[hopein08]

10. Who cares about ladylike??!!

There are a lot worse things you could say. As a lady too, I'll just bite my tongue, commend your restraint, and let your thoughts stand susu369.

[Montauk6]

8. In Bush's America, conflict of interest has replaced apple pie.

[Olney Blue]

9. The family is worth over a billion dollars.

"Frist's father, Thomas, founded the company and his brother, Thomas Jr., is a director and leading stockholder. The family is worth $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine."



Wow, bet they could use some tax cuts!

[swag]

31. That's the money-shot.

But I'm sure Bill never discussed HCA with his family.

[alarimer]

12. Insider trading anyone?

Or is that even illegal anymore?

[hang a left]

16. lol n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. Hell no. Alberto is shifting resources to the war on porn.

Forget white collar crime in Iraq, afghanistan or Haliburton.
Forget political corruption in Ohio, Florida, Texas, Illinois,
Forget potential terror risks


Nope, to save America, Gonzales has his priorities. Porn and pot.

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. HCA WAS INVOLVED IN MEGA-HUGE FRAUD CASE settled in 2003:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4819871
thread title: The next time someone bitches about looting in NOLA, show this to them

Recommended, and will cross-thread with the other post. Got to put these pieces TOGETHER!

Here's part of the opening post excerpt from the HCA fraud thread, which has a press release from June 2003:

HCA is the family business of Senator Bill Frist (R-TN).

From the US Department of Justice:

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_386.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2003
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
CIV
[phone]
TDD [phone]

LARGEST HEALTH CARE FRAUD CASE IN U.S. HISTORY SETTLED
HCA INVESTIGATION NETS RECORD TOTAL OF $1.7 BILLION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - HCA Inc. (formerly known as Columbia/HCA and HCA - The Healthcare Company) has agreed to pay the United States $631 million in civil penalties and damages arising from false claims the government alleged it submitted to Medicare and other federal health programs, the Justice Department announced today.

This settlement marks the conclusion of the most comprehensive health care fraud investigation ever undertaken by the Justice Department, working with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Defense, the Office of Personnel Management and the states. The settlement announced today resolves HCA's civil liability for false claims resulting from a variety of allegedly unlawful practices, including cost report fraud and the payment of kickbacks to physicians.

Previously, on December 14, 2000, HCA subsidiaries pled guilty to substantial criminal conduct and paid more than $840 million in criminal fines, civil restitution and penalties. Combined with today's separate administrative settlement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), under which HCA will pay an additional $250 million to resolve overpayment claims arising from certain of its cost reporting practices, the government will have recovered $1.7 billion from HCA, by far the largest recovery ever reached by the government in a health care fraud investigation.

(snip - much more)

[VegasWolf]

15. I guess that Republicans aren't investigated by the SEC for insider

trading under this administration. Unless he was an officer of the corporation and under a predetermined plan to sell his stock, the timing seems fortuitous to say the least.

[moondust]

18. Paging Eliot Spitzer.

The public would like to have this sale reviewed please.

[rooboy]

22. Kick for an insider trader. n/t

[Zynx]

24. This is a textbook example of insider trading.

HCA knew well in advance they would have disappointing numbers and probably told Frist a month or two before the act.

[LeftHander]

25. Didn't Hospital Corp just get a huge judgment against them....

They have to pay millions for medicare fraud? Or something like that.

Total insider trading....

[Bozita]

27. Yep, $1.7 BILLION -- largest ever settlement of Medicare fraud

see post #13 in this thread.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. What a f**king hypocrite!!! The important part of that story is

"two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent."

[EFerrari]

28. Worried?

Go for it, Bill. Please be as blatant as possible. Do our work for us.

[gratuitous]

33. How does this qualify as a blind trust?

Frist knew what his investment was, how it was allocated, and could order its sale. That's NOT a blind trust. Martha Stewart went to prison for less.

[Democat]

35. "Martha Stewart went to jail for less"

That is a talking point that every Democrat should be repeating on television.

But they are probably too scared to make Frist mad so they will hide like usual.

[indepat]

34. If this ain't trading on "material inside information," the laws need to

be re-written. First, Larry Ellison reportedly sold $900 million of Oracle stock prior to announcement of disappointing profits, now this. I would bet a large sum of money to a donut that neither will be required to wear an anklet bracelet much less spend a day in jail. Life, liberty, and equal justice under the law are laughable concepts in Amerika.

[fshrink]

36. We got another doc...

I smell the theme of "healing" coming my way. And although there's plenty of healing to be done indeed, this shady surgeon is a better candidate for more dammage.

[Roland99]

37. Rather fortunate for Dr. Fristian the trustee sold before the big drop.

Quite fortunate, indeed.

[existentialist]

38. Senator [Frist] Sold Stock Before Price Dropped

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001767_pf.html

washingtonpost.com
Senator Sold Stock Before Price Dropped
Shares Fell Two Weeks Later

By Jonathan M. Katz
Associated Press
Wednesday, September 21, 2005; A03

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.

Frist held an undisclosed amount of stock in Hospital Corporation of America, based in Nashville, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. On June 13, he instructed the trustee managing the assets to sell his HCA shares and those of his wife and children, said Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Frist.

Frist's shares were sold by July 1 and those of his wife and children by July 8, Call said. The trustee decided when to sell the shares, and the Tennessee Republican had no control over the exact time they were sold, she said.

HCA shares peaked at midyear, climbing to $58.22 a share on June 22. After slipping slightly for two weeks, the price fell to $49.90 on July 13 after the company announced its quarterly earnings would not meet analysts' expectations. On Tuesday, the shares closed at $48.76.
The value of Frist's stock at the time of the sale was not disclosed. Earlier this year, he reported holding blind trusts valued at $7 million to $35 million.

[Ben Ceremos]

39. This is

a clear call for an investigation into insider trading. Is there a doctor (a real one) in the House who will launch such...?

[indepat]

40. Where would you or I be spending much time if we traded on material

inside information?

[NoAmericanTaliban]

41. Sounds like insider trading to me..

if they put Martha in jail for 40k, they should put Frist away for a long time, but knowing the SEC he will get a walk or a slapped wrist with a wet noddle. Not the first time Frist has been caught in the cookie jar. Remember he had some campaign funding shenanigans while he paid back his personal loan while draining out the fund.

[cornermouse]

47. Insider trading was my thought too.

[toopers]

42. It was also before it hit its 52 week high.

eom

[VegasWolf]

48. Huh, it was after. He started selling his shares July 1st and his kids

by July 8th. He saved himself a lot of money with his miraculous intuition to sell at the right time.

[Arkana]

43. Remember, kids, it's perfectly fine if a Republican does it.

[420inTN]

50. HCA's 6 and 12 month Stock Price Charts

6 month: http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/6m/h/hca

12 month: http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/1y/h/hca

Even with the recent stock hit, it's trading about where it was 6 months ago, and higher than it was 12 months ago. The stock hit a 52-week high in June. It's possible that he just decided to sell it after it had hit its peak, without having insider knowledge of the financials.

Of course, it's also quite possible that his brother called at told him to sell immediately.

[GrantDem]

49. Is there no end?

Rove, Delay, Taft, Abramoff, Safavian...

It seems as though the corruption has no end in the GOP.

[Nothing Without Hope]

55. New NYT article on Frist's possible insider trading FINALLY mentions

the massive 2000-2003 HCA fraud settlements:

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

[understandinglife]

56. WaPo: " seven senior HCA executives sold 574,882 shares worth $19,942,610"

Frist Stock Sale Raises Questions on Timing

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 22, 2005; A10

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.

So when Frist decided in June to dump all the stock, and later cited as the reason his desire to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, eyebrows went up among ethics experts and congressional watchdogs. Why did he do it at that time?

Precisely a month later, after the stock was sold, its price tumbled 9 percent when executives in the company -- HCA Inc., which was founded by Frist's father and on whose board Frist's brother serves -- disclosed that hospital admissions of insured patients were lower than expected, depressing profits in the second quarter.

The timing thus raised questions about whether Frist had somehow traded on information he obtained in advance from the company. "Frist has been in the Senate for many years now, and the conflict is not new," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Why did he decide to sell it then? Why not years ago? What's changed? Did he know that the stock was about to take a fall?"

More at the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092102065_pf.html

Even with a liquefied brain, you'd still know the answer to those questions -- right, Mr long-distance diagnostician ...


Peace.

[Erika]

57. But he's just a kindly humanitarian physician

barf. What a low life.

[The Traveler]

58. Nah ... Martha went to jail for a less

substantial connection to insider trading info.

Nah .. he ain't no kindly physician ... he's a corrupt, money grubbing, greedy neocon.

[BrklynLiberal]

59. All true,but the big question is..will he get prosecuted for it???

[krkaufman]

60. Big question. Short answer..... n o.

[BrklynLiberal]

61. I am sorry to have to agree with you.

[krkaufman]

63. Bush was never prosecuted for the same offense; so why should Frist? n/t

[The Traveler]

62. Of course not.

What? You think this is still a government of laws? A government of the people, for the people, by the people?

Of COURSE he won't be prosecuted.

But he CAN be ridiculed. He CAN be, figuratively speaking, ridden out of town on a rail after tarring and feathering.

Things ain't gonna change until enough of us are ready to hit the streets. We're almost there, methinks ... it brews slowly, this public storm ... but I really think it is coming.

[understandinglife]

66. "this public storm" ... is going to dwarf Rita, imho.

Peace.

[understandinglife]

64. Would truly enjoy having Martha make exactly that point -- maybe ..

... she and Donald T could discuss the merits of the case on an upcoming "Apprentice" :evilgrin: :rofl:


Peace.

[grytpype]

65. She sure did.

And I'll bet her transaction was smaller, too.

How much time is Frist going to do?

[dajoki]

67. i posted thread on this subject from NYT

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2106239&mesg_id=2106239

[Brother Buzz]

68. IOKIYAR!

It's Okay If You're A Republican!

[merwin]

69. $10 says Bushie would pardon him.

[understandinglife]

70. I'll take that bet after we put Bush in jail ;)

And that is where he will finish the remainder of his sorry life ...


Peace.

[Nostradammit]

71. Is this the same HCA that was caught scamming Medicaid?

for millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars?

Fine Family Values that Frist Family.

Fuckers.

[Bozita]

75. Yep, the largest settlement ever for Medicare FRAUD -- $1.7 BILLION

And that's a settlement figure. A compromise. They looted far more than $1.7 BILLION.

[Nostradammit]

76. Yeah, Medicare, that's it.

$1.7 BILLION + ?????

Fucking Fuckers!

[pa28]

72. Martha Stewart went to "Yale" for less.

If only we lived in a world with no double standard. Frist would be "enrolled" for 3-5 years.

[MaineDem]

81. She was convicted of Obstructing Justice not insider trading

But I agree that there appears to be a double standard.

This should definitely be an issue if he runs for POTUS or VEEP.

[NVMojo]

73. FRY THE CROOKED RICH FUCKERS!!! for alot longer than Martha was ...

[NVMojo]

74. I worked for one of these for-profit chains, they can know a month ahead

that this is coming by when they close out month-end. They probably also had a serious trend of declining insurance customers cuz Repukes are not making healthcare any cheaper to insure for employers, etc. The rat bastards!

[salin]

77. "no insider trading" - but how often do top stock owners sell

more than $19million of stock in a 24 day period... let alone a 24 day period just before a major negative bit of news.

[Rockholm]

78. INSIDER TRADING. Keep repeating.

[Zynx]

79. Even if he never gets convicted on this, this is a nice little smear.

What's more it's a true smear.

[0007]

80. Did Frist know before he went to New Orleans to do his medical

photo opp?

[savemefromdumbya]

82. What about our Commander in Chief then?

http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/07/12/harken/index_np.html?x


When President Bush sold more than 200,000 shares in Harken Energy Corp. in June 1990, he said he did not know the company was in bad financial shape. But memos from the company show in great detail that he was apprised of how badly the company's fortunes were failing before he sold his stock -- and that he was warned by company lawyers against selling stock based on insider information.

Less than two months after Bush sold his stock, Harken announced a $23.2 million loss for the second quarter of 1990.

[Bolo Boffin]

83. That G-D- MuthaFrister!

Hey, anybody who spends that much time doing triage in New Orleans gets one blatently illegal stock trade. It's in the Senate Rules...