Republican Bill Frist appears to be in the clear after investigators announced they will not be bringing charges against the former Tennessee Senator after an 18-month probe into sales of stock in a family-owned hospital chain, reports the Washington Post.
"The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York and Securities and Exchange Commission staff sent Frist letters last week signaling that they had closed their joint, 18-month investigation. The letters essentially cleared him of wrongdoing," writes Carrie Johnson.
The stock probe had dogged Frist, a prominent Nashville heart surgeon who rose through the political establishment with support from President Bush, since news of his directive to sell his remaining HCA shares became public in the fall of 2005. Frist decided against a run for the presidency in 2008 and left Congress last year to "take a sabbatical from public life," he said at the time.
...
The timing [of his stock sales] triggered multiple federal investigations and months of complex legal reviews. Ultimately, Frist -- a devotee of the BlackBerry device -- produced a paper trail that suggested he began the process of selling the stock in late April 2005, months before he knew of HCA's troubles. According to his records, he consulted with a staff attorney at that time, when he said he was unaware of HCA's problems collecting payments from uninsured patients.
More on the story.
Funny how federal investigators claim no wrongdoing on inside trading for Frist yet the same federal investigators went on a lovefest tear to indict, prosecute, and convict businesswoman Martha Stewart on four counts on lying to the FBI Investigators and obstruction of justice in inside trading for ImClone. Yet, the same federal investigators vow to prosecute any person that commit a crime in inside trading.
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