HCA Subpoenaed! Sen. Frist 'Lucky' Stock Deal Likely Cause

[Egalia]

Good news! God I hope the man goes down in disgrace. I'll call it the Revenge of the Cats.
--

The Nashville based HCA has received a subpoenae ordering the company to produce untold documents. The Frist family business states on its website that the action is likely related to the Senate Majority Leader.

It was recently discovered that Senator Frist sold his stock in his family-owned business only a few short weeks before the stock took a disastrous dive.

HCA pled guilty to 14 criminal counts "for filing fraudulent Medicare reports and paying doctors kickbacks for referrals" five years ago.

Links:
http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2005/09/hca-subpoenaed-frist-stock-deal-likely.html

[madrchsod]

1. "Martha`s Revenge"

i am sure she is really a happy camper today.....

[ewagner]

2. I've got to echo

a poster on the Huffington Post thread about this:

"Damn! We (Democrats) can't be that lucky!"

[mattclearing]

3. How hard is it to just wait for the news to become public before selling?

Is it really worth the money to sell out, break the law, give the appearance of impropriety, and likely get ridden out of your leadership position before attempting to run for president?

This strikes me as greed at its most stupid.

[Der Blaue Engel]

4. These people think they'll never get caught

They're above the law. Well, as Nelson would say, "HA-ha!"

[guruoo]

7. Frist 's investment decisions have cost his...

campaign doners over 3/4 of a million dollars,
which they've had to make up since he
squandered their dough in a risky stock venture.



http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0605/12frist.html
<snip>
Hundreds of thousands of dollars Frist's supporters had given him to run for the Senate were dwindling at a rapid rate. Much of that money was lost in a stock market investment that experts say was out of line with the way candidates traditionally invest campaign funds. Frist's campaign also took on more than $1 million in debt so that it could repay Frist for interest-free loans he made to his campaign six years earlier.

And then, in a decision experts say violated federal campaign regulations, Frist filed reports with the Federal Elections Commission that made it difficult for his contributors and political foes to determine just how bad off his campaign finances were.
<snip>
Frist's first critical decision, made in June 2000, was to take $1 million of the contributed money out of the bank, where it was helping earn up to $170,000 a year in interest, and invest it in the stock market. Frist put the money into a mutual fund managed by the Charles Schwab investment firm, his campaign said. And that fund, which Frist's aides refused to identify beyond saying it was an index fund, quickly began losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Frist's next crucial decisions came in November 2000. Having decided that this would be his last run for the Senate and knowing that by law he could not use his Senate cash in a race for president, Frist wanted to get back $1.2 million he had lent his campaign in 1994, when he first ran for office. But Frist 2000 Inc., with just over $1 million available, didn't have enough money to pay Frist back and continue operating. Frist solved that problem by having his campaign take out a $1.44 million bank loan, at a cost of $10,000 a month in interest, and used that money to repay himself.
<snip>

[indepat]

5. Surely after HCA having pled guilty to 14 criminal counts, insiders of HCA

would never in their wildest imaginations consider trading on material inside information for, not only would it be illegal, it can be to readily apparent on its face. But I'll eat my hat if the Feds go after HCA insiders even if a preponderance of the evidence suggests an open and shut case.

[Egalia]

6. Guilty!

Frist has maintained that the ownership of stock in his family-owned business poses no conflict of interest since it has been held in a blind trust.

In a television interview in 2003, Frist insisted:

So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock. . I have no control. It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea.

According to documents on file with the Senate, two weeks before the Senator made this statement, the trustee in charge of the "blind" trust, informed Doctor Frist that he had just acquired some HCA stock in his "blind" trust.

Like my mama always told me, never trust a cat killer.

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2005/09/when-blind-trusts-can-see.html