SEC Opens Formal Investigation of Senate Majority Leader Frist

by Democracy Now (reposted)

Fri, Sep 30, 2005 7:08AM

The SEC has given subpoena power to investigators looking into potential insider trading by Senate Majority leader Dr. Bill Frist (R - TN) of shares of his family's corporation - the Hospital Corporation of America. We speak with independent journalist Doug Ireland. [includes rush transcript] DeLay's indictment is the latest in a recent spate if ethical high-raking Republicans or Bush administration officials. Last week, it was disclosed that Senate Majority leader, Dr. Bill Frist, was under federal investigation for a stock sale.

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has given subpoena power to investigators looking into potential insider trading by Frist of shares of his family's corporation, HCA - the Hospital Corporation of America. The SEC has officially changed the investigation's status from informal to formal. The nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights estimates that Frist made between $2 million and $6 million by selling his HCA holdings just before stock values plummeted in the face of a bad earnings report.

* Doug Ireland, a longtime radical political journalist and media critic. He has been a columnist for The Nation magazine, Village Voice, the New York Observer and the Paris daily Liberation. He is also a contributing editor of POZ, the monthly for the HIV-positive community and writes a blog, "Direland"

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/29/1812254

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