HCA SUBPOENAED BY U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE; RELATED TO STOCK SALE BY SENATOR

[UpInArms]

HCA SUBPOENAED BY U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE; RELATED TO STOCK SALE BY SENATOR FRIST

(bulletin headline at CBSMarketwatch
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/default.asp?refresh=on&Property=symb&Value=&doctype=806&submit=Go&scid=0&siteid=mktw&cbsReferrer=

8:17am 09/23/05 HCA to cooperate fully with U.S. Attorney's office - MarketWatch.com

8:16am 09/23/05 HCA subpoenaed by U.S. attorneys office to produce document - MarketWatch.com

8:17am 09/23/05 HCA sees subpoena relating to sale of stock by Senator Frist - MarketWatch.com

subarticles:

HCA gets subpoena to produce documents

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp?siteid=mktw&dateid=38618.3508349421-843504255&

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- HCA Inc. (HCA) said Friday it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. The Nashville, Tenn., hospital operator said the subpoena calls for the production of documents, and HCA believes it relates to the sale of HCA stock by Sen. William H. Frist. It plans to cooperate fully with the subpoena. The stock closed Thursday at $45.90, down 3.2%.

Agency Calls on Frist About Timing of Stock Sale

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/politics/23frist.html?ex=1213848000&en=f5cf4be6d0da611e&ei=5035&partner=MARKETWATCH

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - A spokesman for Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, said Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had contacted Mr. Frist's office about the sale in June of his shares in HCA, the giant hospital company founded by his family.

Mr. Frist, whose brother Thomas F. Frist Jr. is chairman emeritus and the largest individual shareholder of the company, disclosed earlier this week that on June 13 he asked the managers of blind trusts controlling many of his assets to sell any of his remaining shares in HCA.

The sales occurred just as the share price reached a new peak and shortly before the company's announcement in mid-July of lower-than-expected quarterly results sent the price tumbling.

Mr. Frist, the Senate majority leader and a potential presidential candidate, initially placed more than $10 million in shares of the company in his trusts, but his spokesman said he could not determine how much remained at the time of the sale.

Mr. Stevenson, the spokesman, said the securities commission had contacted Mr. Frist after news organizations published articles this week raising questions about the profitable timing of the sale. Only a few such contacts lead to formal investigations or penalties.

...more...

[fasttense]

1. Well, at least they are pretending to look at it. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. If they let Frist go after what they did to Martha, it will be a clear

indication that the SEC is partisan.

[NashVegas]

41. If They Didn't Get Nailed for This ...

"LoPresti said the only other period in which HCA executives sold a comparable volume of stock was in the spring of 2002, and the company's shares fell 30% over the next 12 months."

Selling before a 9% drop is a pittance in comparison.

I wonder how much of the profit drop may be related to Medicare changes.

[acmavm]

3. Anybody really believe in this 'blind trust' bullshit? Does anyone really

think that if a member of the House, Senate, or current administration owns stocks in a company that's gonna take a nose dive they aren't told about it? In this case, add the fact that it's a family founded, family run scheme.

Do I think this is a coincidence that he decided to dump now to avoid any conflict of interest. You bet. About as sure of that as I am I'm gonna be crowned Queen of England tomorrow.

[0007]

33. I'll crown you tomorrow at 3:00 o'clock if you'll ordain me at

five.

Captain Marvel (Professional wrestler)

[NCPatriot]

38. Ahhhhummmmm Be careful what you wish for!

http://www.ulc.org/

Choose any name you want! :-)

[Zynx]

4. This is so good it just has to be fattening. n/t

[Tesla]

5. Let's keep a check on this story and give it legs!!

[Rockholm]

7. Keeping this Kicked.

[electropop]

15. Wheeeeeee!

One by one, they are tumbling down! The March of the Frogs has begun!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[hedda_foil]

6. Isn't that Spitzer's district?

[Wilber_Stool]

8. Yeah boy!

[Lochloosa]

9. "appearance of a conflict of interest"

"The majority leader will provide the S.E.C. any information that it needs with respect to this matter," Mr. Stevenson said. "Senator Frist had no information about the company or its performance that was not available to the public when he directed the trustees to sell the HCA stock. His only objective in selling the stock was to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest."

Break that world down Frist: "Con"frist

Has a nice ring to it...

[bunny planet]

10. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Inland]

11. Ruh roh! nt

[burythehatchet]

12. Liars. Liars. MFing Liars.

"said he could not determine how much remained at the time of the sale."

Yes that's highly likely. They just dont know how many shares of stock a senator holds in his family's company....nope, no idea.

[jsamuel]

13. .

[wishlist]

14. How can it be a blind trust if he controlled the timing of stock sale?

I think the SEC needs to make an example out of Frist, since obviously putting Martha in jail wasn't a sufficient enough deterrent to the Republicans who think they can get away with anything.

[confludemocrat]

35. So what does this say about the "blindness" of Cheneys Halliburton trust?

Go after that MFer too.

[Kber]

16. Frist said he sold the stock to avoid the appearance of

a conflict of interest.

I don't think it worked.

[leesa]

21. Not when you do it years after you've been in office and when you've

already got the pork you were after. Man, I hope the Kat Killer goes down!

[wakeme2008]

17. From yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1800227&mesg_id=1800227

It was not only Frist but a lot of the top brass there were dumping stock.

I would bet his brother was one of the ones dumping stock and oh by the way Frist just dumped his stock to look clean on ethics issues,,, yea right......

[AzDar]

18. Kick!! n/t

[LeftHander]

19. INsider Trading.....

If it looks like shit, smells like shit, tastes like shit...it is covering ethics not insider trading.

[zbdent]

20. I wonder if the Dept. of Justice will jump on this and bring him to

justice in the same speed and intensity that they did Martha Stewart for a lesser offense?

:eyes: :sarcasm:

[NVMojo]

22. I have been waiting for something like this for YEARS!!!

Our county hospital was bought by Province Healthcare in 97/98. It's a for-profit chain that was spun off from the likes of HCA. Evil shit. I worked for them. Every week, reviews of the admissions into surgery, radiology, etc. were brutal. If docs didn't refer enough "insuranced" patients, at some point, negative things started happening. All of these companies needs to completely investigated along with the pharmacueticals, etc. If it's for-profit, the sick get SCREWED!!!

[CountAllVotes]

23. Cat Killer Frist you will pay for this

Literally ... Karma is a real bitch!

:kick:

[Tom Joad]

24. I seem to remember hearing that Frist was a proctologist

Sure would explain alot of things.

[yellowcanine]

25. Woo hoo! This is turning out to be a good week. The Delay probe

heating up with the arrest of a Bush appointee and now a brand new insider trading investigation of Fristy the cat killer.

[Judi Lynn]

26. It's just wrong to investigate a MEpublican. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. HCA back story including 2000-3 MASSIVE HEALTH CARE FRAUD SETTLEMENT:

A record-breaking $1.7 BILLION fraud settlement with the DOJ. Let's keep this in mind when considering the claims of innocence by the HCA owners, the Frist family, now.

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

[dhinojosa]

28. Frist's HCA Stock Sale Being Investigated

36 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_bi_ge/hca_subpoena


WASHINGTON - The
Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors are investigating Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by his family.

In a statement released Friday, the Nashville-based company said federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York issued a subpoena for documents HCA believes are related to the sale of its stock by the senator.

Frist's office confirmed the SEC is looking into the sale.

The SEC also contacted HCA on Friday to informally request copies of the subpoenaed documents, HCA spokesman Jeff Prescott said. "We of course will comply with that request," he said.

Frist traded using only public information, and only to eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest, Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said in an e-mail Friday.

"Not surprisingly, the Securities and Exchange Commission contacted Senator Frist's office after the story appeared in the press about the sale of his Hospital Corporation of America stock," Stevenson said. "The majority leader will provide the SEC any information that it needs with respect to this matter."

[MADem]

29. Will he get a Harken-style "NAUGHTY BOY" letter

like the weewee cowboy did?????

[Quakerfriend]

30. Wow! Thx for posting this!

This just makes my day!:bounce:

[Charlie Brown]

31. So Gonzales is going to investigate Frist?

That will make a very interesting news story.

[MADem]

45. SEC, so far anyway

I'd love to see Fitzie pick it up.........

[spanone]

32. Here's the local story on our illustrious Mr. Frist.

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050923/BUSINESS01/509230471

Boy, would I like to see this piece of shit go down.

[MasonJar]

34. Do you think that they might reinvestigate Bush's self-aggrand-

ising sale of his stocks, originally looked into by the partner of his own lawyer when his father was president.

[confludemocrat]

36. AKA a "20/20" blind trust as the "Young Turks" called it (n/t)

[DS1]

37. THANKS FOR THE CAPS!

[wishlist]

39. Analyst on CNBC said SEC gave Bush a pass on Harken stock sale

I was surprised that in the discussion of the Frist investigation, the moderator on CNBC today asked the guest analyst if SEC would go easy on Frist, as they tend to go easy on politicians' questionable stock trades. The analyst said yes, SEC might let it slide like they did with Bush's Harken stock sale.

I seem to recall that Newt Gingrich's high profile political career got derailed over a money deal that was not illegal but involved poor judgment and possible conflict of interest, so I don't see why Frist should get a pass on this trade.

[anitar1]

46. He will be found pure as the driven snow, IMO. n/t

[David Zephyr]

40. Is Bush paying Frist back for Stem Cells?

Is Bush doing John McCain a little favor?

[dalaigh lllama]

42. Oh Ho! Methinks you've got it!

I smell a Rove payback.

[tuvor]

43. Prosecutors, SEC Probe Frist Stock Sale

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors and the
Securities and Exchange Commission have opened investigations of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sales of stock in a hospital operating company founded by his family. Documents show Frist was updated several times about his investments in HCA Inc. and other transactions even though they were held in blind trusts.

Despite the updates, Frist insisted in public statements afterward that he didn't know what was in the trusts, specifically denying knowledge of his HCA holdings.

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA said Friday it had received a subpoena from prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, asking for documents the company believes are related to Frist's stock sale.

Prosecutors also have contacted the senator's office, Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said. He said neither the senator nor his office had received a subpoena.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/frist_stock

[tuvor]

44. Sorry for the dupe. I searched "Frist" for the past 24 hours and nothing

came up.