Frist Insider Trading Investigation Widens
by RonChusid September 23rd, 2005 @ 10:11 am
The investigations of Bill Frist for insider trading are appearing more serious per this report from Reuters. “A federal investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s sale of HCA Inc. stock widened on Friday when the largest U.S. hospital chain said federal prosecutors had subpoenaed the company for related documents.”
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And his presidential hopes?
Gone with cats he “adopted.”
They’re starting to connect the dots:
Frist, DeLay fend off probes into ethics
By Donna Cassata, Associated Press Writer | September 23, 2005
WASHINGTON –Heading into a midterm election year, Republicans find themselves with not one, but two congressional leaders — Bill Frist in the Senate and Tom DeLay in the House — fending off questions of ethical improprieties.
The news that the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into Frist’s sale of stock in HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by his family, comes as a criminal investigation continues of Jack Abramoff, a high-powered Republican lobbyist, and his ties to DeLay.
Less than a week ago, a former White House official was arrested in the Abramoff investigation.
For Republicans, the timing couldn’t be worse.
“The last thing you needed was a Martha Stewart problem,” Marshall Wittman, a one-time conservative activist who now works for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said of Frist. “He doesn’t even have a good clothing line or a popular television show.”
Stewart, the homemaking doyenne, served five months in federal prison for lying to authorities about a stock deal and nearly six months more in home confinement.
The midterm elections occur in just over 13 months and Republicans face the historic reality that the party controlling the White House typically loses seats in non-presidential years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/politics/22frist.html
And, an easily-overlooked paragragh half-way down the article stated:
“Five years ago, the company [HCA] pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts for filing fraudulent Medicare reports and paying doctors kickbacks for referrals. It eventually paid $1.7 billion in fines and penalties in connection with the case.”
“On June 13, his spokesman said, Mr. Frist told the managers to sell all his shares. The stock hit its peak at $58.22 a share nine days later, on June 22. By July 8, all the shares held by Mr. Frist and his wife and children were sold, his spokesman said, adding that Mr. Frist did not control the exact timing.”
WHAT WOULD MARTHA DO?
I noticed last night that someone on DU noted that there are now investigations regarding the executive branch – Rove, the House – DeLay, and the Senate – Frist.
It goes even further. The investigations of the Executive Branch (from Fitzgerald) involve both Rove as well as Cheney’s chief of staff, so it includes both the President and Vice President.