Martha Stewart sells on insider information for under 50K and goes to jail. Frist does the same exact thing, only for millions…what now? A self made female millionaire goes down, and what happens to the male senator who inherits his fortune? I guess it depends on what he tells the SEC when they sit him down…if he sticks to his story and they find a phone call or some record of a communication from someone inside the company, does he get charged and prosecuted as vigirously as Stewart was?
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s order to sell all his of shares of HCA Inc. a month before the price dropped on news of weaker-than-expected earnings, Frist’s office said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan also has subpoenaed HCA documents that the company, the biggest U.S. hospital chain, believes to be related to the Frist stock sales, the company said in a statement.
The SEC “contacted Senator Frist’s office after the story appeared in the press about the sale,” spokesman Bob Stevenson said in a statement. “The majority leader will provide the SEC any information that it needs with respect to this matter.” HCA said it “intends to cooperate fully.” HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said today that the information in the subpoena indicated that the probe relates to Frist’s stock sale. He declined to comment further.
Frist told trustees managing his assets to divest HCA stocks on June 13, one month before the company said second-quarter profit would miss earnings estimates and the share price fell almost 15 percent from a 52-week high on June 22.
Frist didn’t know when or how many shares were sold and had no prior information about the company’s earnings, spokeswoman Amy Call said this week. Call said Frist decided to sell the HCA shares after outside interest groups repeatedly suggested his stake in the company represented a potential conflict of interest.
Ethics Rules
The Senate ethics committee allows lawmakers to direct the trustees of blind trusts to sell all of the shares of a particular company, if they decide that holding the stock either creates a conflict of interest or the appearance of one, according to a copy posted on the panel’s Web site.
Herb Hadad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, and SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.
Thomas Frist, the senator’s father, and the senator’s brother, Thomas Frist Jr., founded HCA in 1968 along with Jack Massey, the former owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Thomas Frist Jr., who stepped down as chairman of the company in 2002, still serves on the company’s board of directors.
Trained in cardiothoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, Frist worked for the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital for seven years, beginning in 1986 and joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1985, where founded and became surgical director of the multi-organ Vanderbilt Transplant Center.
Assets
Frist, 53, ranked as the sixth richest among 94 U.S. senators last year, according to financial disclosure forms released by the Senate in June. Frist had assets in 2004 valued between $15.4 million and $45.15 million.
Frist, a possible 2008 presidential aspirant, is paid $180,100 a year in his Senate job. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University Medical School, Frist was elected to the Senate in 1994 by defeating incumbent James Sasser, a Democrat. He became majority leader in late 2002.
In 2003, HCA concluded several government investigations that began in 1997 into its business practices. In the five years ended in 2003, HCA paid about $2 billion in settlements for Medicare fraud and other claims, according to Hoover’s.
The company allegedly took doctors on free hunting trips to Venezuela and Mexico, paid them for sham medical directorships and recruited doctors based on how many patients they had. The government also said HCA billed Medicare for costs in a 1987 spinoff that occurred when Thomas Frist ran the company.
Frist is innocent until proven guilty and we must remember that fact. That is the American way. If something was done to violate the law then justice must take its course, but nothing criminal has been proven to this point despite some people’s speculation . I repeat – speculation!
Seems like law and order republicans are usually the ones ignoring innocent until proven guilty, one of the first times I listened to Rush Limbaugh he was ranting about how innocent people want to talk to the cops and only the guilty use thier miranda rights. Times are a changing.
Paul, I understand quite well that rich Americans who can afford the best lawyers money can buy will sometimes get away with murder, let alone insider trading.
The company opened in 1994 and over 10 years into the successful existance of his daddy’s empire he all at once, just decides to sell every single share he owns?
Why does one do that? Better yet, why does someone who surely isn’t short on money decide to cash in every single share of stock they own of the FAMILY business?
And this line of BS that he sold it to ‘avoid a conflict of interest’…imagine the gaul of this man. Some things are just beyond the rhealm of coincidence. Think of the rich Americans who have beat charges in the past and you can count them. The future isn’t just predicted out of the blue in such a way – it doesn’t happen.
If th isis is true Frist is an idiot. He could have at least tryed to hide it better.
Check out Think Progress
More In 1997, CNN reported:
The nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain is already the target of an FBI probe of alleged Medicare fraud. Now Columbia’s newly appointed chairman, Thomas Frist, and six other executives face allegations of insider trading. The New York state comptroller making the claims in a lawsuit. The suit alleges Frist sold more than 3 1/2 million shares of Columbia over the past year and a half, while he supposedly knew of problematic business practices.
The word is hubris, these guys not only seem to think they are above the law but above realty.
Martha Stewart was punished for committing a crime . Again, Frist has NOT been found guilty of a crime as of today. Therefore, he is innocent until he is proven to be guilty. Please take note !