With so much happening at the present time, two favorite Republicans have been pushed out of the news. But for Bill Frist and Tom DeLay, things have not stood still.
Here are recent updates for both of these fine gentlemen.
You will remember that Senator Frist “allegedly” directed the sale of stock in HCA, Inc. just before the price fell. HCA, a large healthcare company, was founded by his father and brother. The stock was held in an allegedly blind trust.
The group Public Citizen has been looking at other stock transactions that are, shall we say, curious.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/national/17frist.html?8br
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 – A consumer advocacy group called Wednesday for the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand its inquiry into the stock trades of Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, saying it had uncovered “questionable transactions lucrative to Frist family members.“
Now the advocacy group, Public Citizen, says financial disclosure documents filed by Mr. Frist reveal several additional “exceedingly well-timed transactions” made by trusts that manage investments for his three sons. All involve healthcare companies that at one point had ties to the Frist family.
“We’re not sure what this means,” said Frank Clemente, director of Congress Watch, Public Citizen’s government watchdog arm. But, he added, “It has the smell of the HCA stock trading, and we just thought it was important to bring this to light.“
Public Citizen looked at stock transactions beyond HCA. It found that in September 2003, trusts in the name of the Mr. Frist’s sons bought $300,000 to $750,000 worth of stock in American Retirement Corporation, a Brentwood, Tenn., company that offers services to the elderly, including assisted living and nursing home care. One of the founders of the company, established in 1978, was the senator’s father, although the Frists no longer appear to have an interest in it.
Public Citizen found that in June 2005, at the same time the senator disposed of his HCA stock, the sons’ trusts “reaped multimillion-dollar gains” by disposing of the American Retirement Corporation stock. The value had by then increased 367 percent, the group said, to anywhere from $1.4 million to $3.5 million.
A 367 percent increase in less than 2 years, realized at the same time as the HCA sale. There’s probably no real cause for concern, right?
As for Mr.DeLay, Texas prosecutors have now issued a subpoena for records of transactions between his PAC and that of the current House majority leader, Roy Blunt of Missouri.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/17/politics/17delay.html?8bl
The subpoena, issued in Austin, the Texas capital, asked for all records from Mr. DeLay’s committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, about its contributions from 2000 to 2002 to Mr. Blunt’s committee, Rely on Your Own Beliefs Fund, and to the state Republican Party in Missouri, where Mr. Blunt’s son is governor.
The subpoena offered no explanation of why prosecutors wanted the records, although news reports have recently questioned why thousands of dollars raised by Mr. DeLay and his committee to entertain delegates at the 2000 Republican convention were shifted to Mr. Blunt’s committee.
Mr. Blunt’s committee made a $10,000 contribution at about the same time to a charity controlled by Mr. DeLay.
So Rep.Blunt is potentially knee deep in this mess. Perhaps the search for a new successor should begin. But then there’s this statement:
“There’s nothing that any of these committees did that was improper,” said Stefan Passantino, a lawyer for Mr. Blunt.
Well that strenuous denial should be good enough, don’t you think?
