Group Seeks Further Inquiry in Frist’s Stock Sales

HT to Doctor Blogger for this one, which I missed:

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.”

The commission is already investigating the senator’s decision to sell all of his stock in HCA Inc., the healthcare giant founded by his father and brother, shortly before the price hit a peak and then plummeted. Mr. Frist, whose records, along with company’s, have been subpoenaed, has repeatedly said that he has done nothing wrong.

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.

Repeat after me: innocent until proven guilty, innocent until proven guilty, innocent until proven guilty...

That's fine, except it is starting to stretch the limits of credibility for him to claim that it was just luck for him and his family to have such serendipity when it comes to timing the market.  I suppose I might look at this differently, if it turned out that that they used the profits to fund free medical clinics, or something like that.

Regardless of the outcome, we can at least hope that his Presidential aspirations are fading.