AP: Frist Accumulated Stock Outside Trusts

[understandinglife]

AP: Frist Accumulated Stock Outside Trusts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:31 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

The Tennessee Republican, whose sale this summer of HCA Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long maintained he could own HCA shares and still vote on health care legislation without a conflict because he had placed the stock in blind trusts approved by the Senate.

However, ethics experts say a partnership arrangement shown in documents obtained by The Associated Press raises serious doubts about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict.

In that case, the HCA stock was accumulated by a family investment partnership started by the senator's late parents and later overseen by his brother, Thomas Frist. The brother served as president of the partnership's management company and as a top officer of HCA. Sen. Frist holds no position with the company.

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More at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Frist-Stock.html?pagewanted=print

Peace.

[Debi]

1. But the trust was blind, it could not follow the balloon n/t

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

2. Sick, but funny. nt

[Caution]

3. That is SO wrong!

I love it! thanks :)

[Debi]

7. Like the two of you weren't thinking it.

Frist can try to look like he's ethical (because he's a physician) but then he just proves he's as greedy as the rest of the bastards. As if he doesn't have enough money already. Why even own the stock if the appearance of impropriety may exist? He was hoping that nobody would look into the ownership and sale of the stock and would be blind to any wrongdoing. (hehe, I kept up the TS jokes as much as I could in this post)

[ShockediSay]

28. Moral values

Does anybody remember the spin of the last election?

[Debi]

41. That just means they can't get blow jobs in the Oval Office

Everything else is "Fair Game"

[drone]

43. Expected

Nov 5, 2004 moral values fallen to last place on priority list. Nov 6,2004 it was off the list. I had expected it to be on the list for 3 months.

[bunny planet]

10. Not blind apparently, just near-sighted ( Keith Olbermann's line, not mine

[stevedeshazer]

13. Sweet.

:rofl:

Nice one.

[Beetwasher]

4. What An Idiot

How stupid do you have to be to do this shit? I mean really...

[holboz]

11. His arrogance got the best of him, just like the other rePukes

I think when Bush stole the election the Repukes felt like they were invincible. And when they got away with it again in 2004 then they truly felt as if they owned our government and they could do whatever the f'ing well they pleased and wouldn't have to answer for it.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm really enjoying the ugly fall of these bastards. PASS THE POPCORN!

:popcorn:

[cassiepriam]

15. Hey they were getting away with it, weren't they? And none of them

are in jail yet.

[dchill]

49. Exactly...

As long as they're not in jail, they're getting away with it. Orange jumpsuits are the uniform of the truly "fallen."

[cassiepriam]

51. And sad to say, we might not see them in orange.

[stillcool]

5. From same article...

Frist ordered the stock sold June 13 and all sales were completed by July 1. HCA stock peaked on June 22 and then gradually declined. On July 13, it dropped 9 percent.

Reports to the SEC showed insiders sold about 2.3 million shares of HCA stock worth at least $112 million from January through June 2005.

Is Fristy Fried?

[AlCzervik]

8. He's got some trouble imo and bye bye presidential bid.

[texpatriot2004]

9. A Fristy fried chicken. nm

[NVMojo]

6. The Frist family profit opportunities are endless, HCA birthed a ton

of other healthcare for-profits:

http://www.healthcarecouncil.com/index.cfm?page=industryoverview&menu=industry&link=industryhistory

[burythehatchet]

12. thanks for that link

the health care industry is diseased. This is a symtom of the disease. Privatized health care is the most inefficient way to deliver health care. The Nashville Health Care Council fails to mention that HCA has paid the biggest fine ever for medicare fraud, $1.8 billion if memory serves. The only reason they paid it was because Fristula was poised to become senate leader after they threw Trent Lott off the boat.

[NVMojo]

29. you are right ...it is very diseased. I was locked out of my office

while working for one of these rural for-profit chains for whistle-blowing on my boss who had sent out anonymous smear packets throughout the medical community to slander a doctor here who was taking business away from their radiology department, an anti-trust issue of some sort. These people are dirty. We used to have weekly and sometimes daily teleconferences with Brentwood, Tennessee to discuss which docs in the community had done too many Medicare/Medicaid or cash paying patients in the surgery department and not enough insurance paying patients/cases. If a doc wasn't bringing in enough high dollar surgeries with insurance, they were bringing in doctors from elsewhere to put the non-compliant docs out of business. DOj looked into this issue briefly but not obviously didn't do much about it.

Our town, and we are in the middle of nowhere, is stuck with the HCA spawn chain "Lifepoint" now ...

[yellowcanine]

38. So did his brother sell the HCA stock before Fristy sold his? Could be

the smoking gun in this case.....If the brother tells Fristy, "Hey I dumped the HCA stock and you should dump yours as well...."

[Just Me]

14. Good grief!!! All these assholes conspire to break the rules/law.

It's absolutely stunning!!! What a bunch of evil bums!!!

[understandinglife]

16. Jamie Court: Frist's Biz With Bro' Reveals His Lies

Answering allegations of insider trading of Hospital Corporation of America stock, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had said he didn't talk business with his brother. "I have handled all of the business above and beyond the highest ethical standards. That's about all I can say," said Frist. "I do not talk about business with my brother." Today the Associated Press reports Frist's brother Thomas managed a family investment partnership, which held HCA stock, outside of Senator Frist's "blind" trust arrangement.

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This should give SEC prosceutors looking into insider trading allegations some juicy new material. And Senators, who have been silent, should now start howling about Frist's misconduct. The Senate may be a club, but when it's leader lies, it tarnishes the whole house.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-court/frists-biz-with-bro-rev_b_8702.html

Time for Frist to resign. He will not escape this one.


Peace.

[susu369]

17. "Greedy People Beget Greedy People"

[Nothing Without Hope]

18. Recommended. Some of the back story is in this thread. There is a long

and extremely dirty history for the Frist Family HMO and the pious doctor himself been caught in a lot of lies about it. There has been massive conflict of interest for Frist himself as well as record-breaking medical care fraud and much more. Here's a thread with back info:
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
Nothing Without Hope General Discussion Thu Sep-22-05 03:38 AM

And don't miss this very revealing "FRIST STOCK TIMELINE" for Frist's statements as oppposed to facts and actions:
http://thinkprogress.org/frist-stock-timeline

So many, many self-serving, greedy lies for such a godly man...

[understandinglife]

20. Thank you, Hope, for the important links.

Peace.

[understandinglife]

19. MSNBC picks up story: Frist may not have avoided a conflict of interest

Frist may not have avoided a conflict of interest: Had stock in hospital chain run by brother while voting on health care law

Updated: 6:41 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005
WASHINGTON - Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

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Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9665433

Peace.

[savemefromdumbya]

21. Will the cat killer go down?

They are all going down - dropppping like flies - will there be any GOP left we ask ourselves?

[Independent_Liberal]

44. Yup, the Cat Killer is going down!

:)

[Patsy Stone]

22. Recommended

Thanks again, UL. Right there with the info as always.

Watch them fall...

[wurzel]

23. The same question should be put to the Bush family!!

[marmar]

24. The Humpty-Dumpty Republican Party...

But we're not trying to put that mofo together again!

[Bombero1956]

25. can we now say

that Sen. Frist's presidental hopes are in a persistent vegetative state with little hope of recovery?

[DanCa]

26. Could this be the pay back for frist not towing the stem cell line?

[Tigress DEM]

27. Martha did her time w/o whining and snivling about it. nt

[MADem]

32. I'll bet no one hand knits HIM a poncho!! nt

[Tigress DEM]

45. You got that right.

Even going to jail, she stepped down so that her employees wouldn't have to bear the brundt of the situation, so the company would survive and people would have their jobs.

Even at her time of ultimate shame, Martha trumps all these idiots in office.

Not saying she's a saint or anything, just that she actually cares about what happens to other people.

[stevebreeze]

30. what fun! his seats up in 2006?

I just can't help remember Obama vs Keyes election.

[longship]

31. Gees Louise!!

This GOP meltdown is a real meltdown. The whole thing is beginning to crumble and topple over.

The Dems congresscritters are probably correct in standing off a bit, but I hope that they are ready to jump into the fray when the inevitable GOP attack machine gears up.

[belle]

33. What's truly vile here, of course...

isn't just the greed and money-related corruption; hell, you almost expect that from politicians. No, it's that his particular skim comes off the back of sick and injured people who are increasingly less able to afford treatment.

Frist the cat-killer; Frist the sick-grifter. Maybe we should just start calling him Mengele.

[Lochloosa]

34. Frist may not have avoided a conflict of interest

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9665433/


Updated: 6:41 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005
WASHINGTON - Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

The Tennessee Republican, whose sale this summer of HCA Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long maintained he could own HCA shares and still vote on health care legislation without a conflict because he had placed the stock in blind trusts approved by the Senate.

However, ethics experts say a partnership arrangement shown in documents obtained by The Associated Press raises serious doubts about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict.
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

bye bye '08

[Why Syzygy]

35. achoo!

Of COURSE he had conflicts of interest.
That's not an exact term, because he was coordinating all his interests. DUH!

Does it take a law degree to figure this out?

[tanyev]

37. Could that headline be more torturous?

How about "Frist: caught in conflict of interest?"

[Lasher]

36. Actually, the 'blind' trusts don't pass the smell test either.

It's already been proved that Frist received reports on his 'blind' trusts. He knew what was in them, and directed the sale of HCA stock before the fall.

[afdip]

39. in south carolina they say, "pigs git et"

[4_TN_TITANS]

40. Yeee HAAAA....

This asshole just keeps making it easier for us TN Dems to fill his seat....

[VaYallaDawg]

42. Maybe Martha's ankle bracelet can be recycled. n/t

[Dr Fate]

46. Looks like Dr. QUACK has another alias: Dr. CROOK n/t

n/t

[understandinglife]

47. WaPo: SEC Issues Subpoena To Frist

SEC Issues Subpoena To Frist, Sources Say
Records Sought On Sale of Stock

By Carrie Johnson and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 13, 2005; A01

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been subpoenaed to turn over personal records and documents as federal authorities step up a probe of his July sales of HCA Inc. stock, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued the subpoena within the past two weeks, after initial reports that Frist, the Senate's top Republican official, was under scrutiny by the agency and the Justice Department for possible violations of insider trading laws.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101202286_pf.html

Call Martha and begin designing that prison cell ....


Peace.

[dchill]

50. Martha Stewart or...

Martha ... MITCHELL? (Sorry, I just keep getting all 70's these days.)
;)

[truthisfreedom]

48. could it be argued that because frist never acted in Congress to benefit

his company, the spirit of the blind trust was never violated? certainly he's guilty of insider trading, which would require informing the SEC in advance of any sales based on insider knowledge, but why isn't anyone talking about that? doesn't it seem obvious?

[PurpleChez]

52. The sound you hear is chickens coming home to roost,

and *, Darth Cheney, Scooter, Frist, the Hammer, Brownie, the Professor, and Mary Ann are all knee-deep in chicken scat.

Break's over, everybody! Back on your heads!

We've gotta get rid of these crap factories next year.