arrangement shown in documents raise serious doubts Frist avoided conflict

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101576.html?referrer=email

Documents Detail Frist Stock Shares

Associated Press
Wednesday, October 12, 2005

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 Hospital Corporation of America Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long said he could own HCA shares and 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 about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict.

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Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, said she does not believe the Senate trusts or the Tennessee trust insulated Frist from a conflict because the senator or his brother was advised of transactions and could influence decisions.