Frist Said He Would Skip Votes, Not Sell Stock, If Conflict Emerged
Frist Said He Would Skip Votes, Not Sell Stock, If Conflict Emerged
Bill Frist’s entire defense in the face of insider trading allegations against him is that he sold his stock to “avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.†But in 1994, in the middle of a tough election campaign where his challenger raised questions about the potential of such conflict of interest cases, Frist said he would recuse himself from from the votes, not sell his shares:
“If there is ever any potential of a conflict of interest, I will consult the Senate Ethics Committee and will recuse myself from the votes if that’s the case,” said Frist. [Knoxville News-Sentinel, 10/26/94]
So after holding onto his HCA stock for the last 11 years, Frist suddenly decided last month that he was going to change his own standard: rather than recuse himself from any votes that presented a conflict, he decided to sell off the stock completely. Coincidently, by selling the stock when he did, Frist avoided millions in loses.
A question for Bill Frist: instead of selling off your shares to avoid an appearance of conflict, why didn’t you simply follow-through on your 1994 pledge to recuse yourself from questionable votes?
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12 Responses to “Frist Said He Would Skip Votes, Not Sell Stock, If Conflict Emerged”
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Frist has standards? They must involve what he expects out of others, because he clearly has none for himself!
September 26th, 2005 at 4:07 pmHmmm, doesn’t take a genius to see that he changed his mind to make some dough.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:24 pmThis guy makes millions and Martha “lies” about things that aren’t event jailable offenses for about 50 grand and is tossed in jail. No justice.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:34 pmPublic Servants. Humble.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:37 pmIf it’s good enough for Georgie, it’s good enough for the kitty killer.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:41 pmGOP, your corruption is showing.
September 26th, 2005 at 5:04 pmThis fits well with the Republican philosophy of putting personal gain before all else.
September 26th, 2005 at 5:10 pmAs the record clearly shows, Bill Frist has already lied twice. Terri Schiavo was blind. His blind trust was not.
For more on Frist and the epidemic of GOP corruption, cronyism and patronage, see:
“Banana Republicans.”
September 26th, 2005 at 7:31 pmWatch out for this folks. Somebody up there with any sort of connections check it out.
Frist is floating a new defense. He now says that he instructed the trust to sell the shares of HCA before THE BOOKKEEPERS HAD DISCOVERED THAT THERE WAS A LOSS.
But, this being a blind trust, and he himself previously said, that he did not know he had HCA stock.
September 27th, 2005 at 12:37 pmAs a former Stockbroker I can tell you this is a clear case of insider trading. Also, if I comitted this crime for a client, we would both end up in jail along with receiving extremely large fines. Plus I would have lost my broker’s license.
But another criminal Republican rat, along with his accomplices gets away with it, again.
I wonder if Martha Stewart would like to cook up a very special dish for him from her new book, ‘How to Prepare Rat Poison for Criminal Republican Rats and Their Accomplices Who Get Away With It, Again.’
September 27th, 2005 at 1:11 pmBill Frist continually shows his duplicitous nature, the insider trading just beingthe latest of many moments of arrogant preverication. This man is gonna run for President?? God help us all if he were to be elected. We have been overcome by a wave of Republican shit and it is only a matter of time when the American culture drowns in corruption, deceipt,and lack of a true moral direction. We the people must rise up and throw these bastards out of Washington before the death of a nation.
R Wagner
September 28th, 2005 at 11:03 amTempe, Az
Grand Old Problems
What do I really need to say?
Tom Delay indicted by Texas grand jury; steps down as House majority leader per rules previously abolished but reinstated to avoid backlash from voters (i.e., not because majority leaders with indictments against them …
September 28th, 2005 at 2:10 pm