Insider Trading Runs In the Frist Family
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office for possibly having engaged in insider trading. Frist “sold all his stock in his family’s hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent… Frist’s father, Thomas, founded the company, and his brother, Thomas Jr., is a director and leading stockholder. ”
Apparently, insider trading runs in the family.
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.
Thomas Frist survived the allegations and remains heavily involved in the company’s operations. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Frist’s brother Thomas F. Frist Jr. had left the management and was vice chairman. But he returned as chief executive to help HCA recover. He remains its largest individual shareholder and chairman emeritus.”
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20 Responses to “Insider Trading Runs In the Frist Family”
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These guys are so crooked. It’s like the the mafia in suits. Wait, the mafia wears suits — but you know what I”m saying.
September 23rd, 2005 at 1:50 pmthis should be a huge story. how can we tolerate a majority leader, much less a senator, doing this sort of thing. this is typical for Republicans — blind eye to corporate malfeasance/insider trading; but hard core attacks on the poor
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:02 pmDidn’t G-Dub get into hot water over a sale of Harkin Oil stock back in the day? Look how he was “punished” by his party: They “only” nominated him as their presidential candidate! “That’ll show ‘em, he, he.”
Where as this sort of thing is frowned upon by “good ole boys” and the Liberal Inteligentcia(sic), the Grand ‘Ole Party will probably use this as a reason to buoy Frist.
When will a nail be driven through these skanks? When will we rid ourselves of this corruption, this cronyism?
“Dear God, I want my country back, please.”
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:13 pmIf they could make a buck by killing children and selling the body parts, they’d be on it in a hot second. And get away with it.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:20 pmIt was “Harken” Oil.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:28 pmQuick a tale really.
Makes what they pinned on Martha look silly,
but the investigation was closed by Daddy’s
SEC as “neither proven or disproved” or some
such. You could sort of tell by the wording
they thought there was something there.
Reading the history, I think I would be in
jail if I did it, but there you go, and that’s why
Frist will be perfectly fine no matter
what the rules are.
Opps, that’s “Quite a tale”
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:29 pmAnd they just reemed Martha Stewart for the same thing. What a bunch of hypocritical lowlifes.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:30 pmRegardless of whether the media “Martha-fies” him or not, one hopes that the Feds go after him with the same vigour… that’s the key.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:34 pmhe’ll get a STRONG slap on the wrist…maybe.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:35 pmIMPEACH HIM TOO
Afterthought: No fine, no slap on the wrist? If not, this man must really hate life right now, being that there is so mcuh open disent right now! Good for him. Pay the piper, bitch!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:43 pmGet your new Bush-O-Matic today! It slices! It dices! It cooks (the books)! It cleans (the records)! Watch as we put in some constitution. Out it comes perfectly shredded! Pour in some bill of rights. Perfectly squashed and mashed for easier consumption! Look at what it does to laws. Bending and twisting just like a pretzel! What a fun snack! Thousands of unethical and illegal uses!
Order today and also receive the Rove-A-Tron! Break any law or rule and automatically avoid any and all ramifications! When in need just turn on your Rove-A-Tron and watch the authorities turn away with smiles and waves! It’s Amazing!
Order now while supplies last!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:47 pm#11
Too funny!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:54 pm#11 RIGHT ON!!!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:56 pm#3 Harken Oil 1990 - the SEC dropped his case - he was the Preznit’s son at the time: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1030-06.htm
September 23rd, 2005 at 3:07 pmWhere is Northeast Dilemma and mighty aphrodite to help me defend one of our republican heroes? I could use some help here, and get so tired that they sidestep any issue on graft and corruption or corporate wrong-doing. All they want to do is attack the left over social issues. But I’ll do my best without them to help me.
You guys can pile it on about Senator Frist. Go ahead. Call him a typical, rightwing, republican slimeball. Call him a lowdown, two-faced, crooked-assed, dipsh*t who lines his pockets with corporate kickbacks and then rewards them with pork and friendly legislation. Go ahead. You might as well call him a unscrupulous, calculating scumbag with low principles, as well. But, as a redneck republican myself, someone has to speak for him. So I’ll speak for NED and aphrodite here: He ain’t the only one.
September 23rd, 2005 at 3:50 pmNow we know where Frist learned his “family values” from.
September 23rd, 2005 at 4:04 pm#15, You mean there are others like Frist
out there?
Like maybe:
September 23rd, 2005 at 4:59 pmDeLay
Abramoff
Ney
“Duke” Cunningham
Taft
Sanatorium
You got it, afterthought. The who’s-who dipsh*ts of the Republican party.
September 23rd, 2005 at 5:04 pmBefore retiring down here in Mexico I was a private investigator.
In 1999 I was hired by an attorney firm to do a complete background investigation on Columbia/HCA and the Frist family, to include Senator Frist.
I filled about 10 legal boxes with reports, records, lawsuits, briefs, etc., and my investigation proved that HCA and the Frist family, including Senator Frist were crooks to the core.
HCA was, and is, a closely held family corporation. They are the largest for profit hospital chain in the country. They have been under investigation for years for medicare fraud and overcharging.
Their systemic approach to acquiring assets was to move into a city, buy up one or two hospital, and then run them into the ground. They would fire all the good nurses and hire only nurses assistants. The administration of the hospital would be fired, and they brought in their own man, usually a relative of some sort.
After running the hospital into the ground they would sell the property to a real estate developer for a huge sum and the property would be turned into a strip mall or some such entity.
They never ever had a hospital to pass any federal, state or local health inspection. Never. They overcharged and overbilled. A tongue depressor for example was on the billings at $10 a pop. They would not accept a patient unless he was covered by medicare or had private insurance that they could rip off.
They played with their books and usually showed a loss, or very little profit. The kicker was that they had a relative in Georgia where all excess and hidden profits were funneled to. After several years of lying fallow these excess profits were funneled to all members of this family corporation, including Senator Frist who knew full well what was going on.
I proved to myself, and my clients, in 1999 that HCA was a scam corporation. The purpose of the investigation was an attempt by citizens in a large western city to stop HCA from taking over 2 hospitals in the city, after they had ran another one into the ground.
My clients tried for a restraining order but after spending thousands and thousands of dollars the matter was merely thrown out of court by a Republican judge.
HCA and the Frist family are rotten and corrupt to the very core.
September 24th, 2005 at 1:37 pmHarken Oil was a company that the shrub ran out of 20 foot motor coach that was parked on a used car lot. He had no employees, only a telephone.
H traded in oil without ever seeing a barrel of the stuff and screwed as many people as he possibly could.
September 26th, 2005 at 11:49 am