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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