A Frist-ful of dollars

Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist isn't quite clear on the blind trust concept. According to documents obtained by the Associated Press, Frist made an end run around the blind trust and earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother...

His investments in Nashville-based HCA are being investigated by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission after an AP report that the senator had asked administrators of his Senate blind trusts to sell his HCA holdings.

Frist ordered the stock sold June 13 and all sales were completed by July 1. HCA stock peaked on June 22 and then gradually declined. On July 13, it dropped 9 percent.

Reports to the SEC showed insiders sold about 2.3 million shares of HCA stock worth at least $112 million from January through June 2005.

It looks as if Frist was careful not to make the well-known Stewart-maneuver and act on his inside-info with one large stock dump.

Being a Reagan Republican, Frist followed the blind trust but diversify plan.