Well, as has been pointed out with Cheney's Halliburton stocks being in Blind Trust, so was Bill Frist's stocks. He has been saying for years they're in a Blind Trust so they have no influence over him. Then, mysteriously he sells them just before they go down in a drastic fall, and claims he didn't want to there to be any appearance of impropriety of his stock ownership.

Why all of a sudden was it an issue?

Read on... (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1153&slug=Frist%20Blind%20Trust)

Frist received many updates on blind trust

By LARRY MARGASAK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm's-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators.

Frist, R-Tenn., received regular updates of transfers of assets to his blind trusts and sales of assets. He also was able to initiate a stock sale of a hospital chain founded by his family with perfect timing. Shortly after the sale this summer, the stock price dived.

So, how can a trust be blind if you KNOW you have Halliburton or HCA shares? Unless you have someone selling and buying them. Just sticking 20,000 shares into a blind trust, and they're just sitting there... what the heck is blind about that?

Just sticking 20,000 shares into a blind trust, and they're just sitting there... what the heck is blind about that?The assumption that the taxpayers are blind, maybe? :)

To jail with him!

I think he probably shot himself in the foot for a run at the presidency in 2008.

At this point, I'd be willing to vote for someone who convinced me they had the good of the country in mind and not the good of their persona. That would pretty much eliminate anyone affiliated with the established rel...uh political parties.

Well, as has been pointed out with Cheney's Halliburton stocks being in Blind Trust, so was Bill Frist's stocks. He has been saying for years they're in a Blind Trust so they have no influence over him. Then, mysteriously he sells them just before they go down in a drastic fall, and claims he didn't want to there to be any appearance of impropriety of his stock ownership.

Frist had said that he sold them because debate on health care reform is coming up so he asked to have any remaining stocks sold. I doubt that any proof that he had inside knowledge but his family is involved. *shrug* the Dems would critize if he kept the stocks in his blind trust so this is solely politically motivated.

First, he shouldn't have known, in the first place, how much stock he had in the trust, and he did, that much is clear

Secondly, selling your stock (along with other insiders) shortly before your stock takes a hit is usually called insider trading...not ensuring he didn't personally have a conflict.

Martha got sent up the river because they thought she might have. I wonder if Doc Frist will be?

Seems to me if Frist really wanted to be on the squeaky clean he would have discussed his wish to divest with the ethics committee in Congress and gotten their approval first or at least let them know he was doing that.

What is a blind trust? If I have a million shares in Microsoft and I am president so my million shares are hauled to a blind trust, don't I still know in the back of my mind that I have about a million shares in Microsoft?

From wikipedia:

Blind trust
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A Blind trust is a trust in which the executors have full discretion over the assets, and the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust. Blind trusts are generally used when a trustor wishes to keep the beneficiary unaware of the specific assets in the trust, such as to avoid conflict of interest between the beneficiary and the investments. Investopedia

But like you, I don't understand how this is helpful if you don't divest of those controversial shares before going blind.

What is a blind trust? If I have a million shares in Microsoft and I am president so my million shares are hauled to a blind trust, don't I still know in the back of my mind that I have about a million shares in Microsoft?

I think you asked the right question. Frist had health care stocks because his family owned that company. Frist went blind and he did not know if the stocks were sold. For plausable political reasons, he asked to sell the shares. There has to be some proof that he sold on insider trading.

For insiders, there are black out periods where insiders can not sell their stocks. I think this is about 1 month before the stock publishes quartely earnings. If earnings are expected to turn down and Frist knew then that may be insider trading. Still, there needs to be some amount of proof.

For plausable political reasons, he asked to sell the shares.

I'm never sure about believing people's incompetence over their greed. Then again he's a politician so you can't rule either out.

Forcing someone to sell out before placing all assets in a blind trust would potentially expose them to a large tax liability from capital gains, and so act as a major disincentive for successful investors to run for office. And really, who would want to vote for a stock market loser ;)

I think I read that Frist was elected and placed his assets in trust eight years ago. After that long, he would not have a really good idea of his holdings, assuming that the trust was truly blind.

I think you asked the right question. Frist had health care stocks because his family owned that company. Frist went blind and he did not know if the stocks were sold. For plausable political reasons, he asked to sell the shares. There has to be some proof that he sold on insider trading.

For insiders, there are black out periods where insiders can not sell their stocks. I think this is about 1 month before the stock publishes quartely earnings. If earnings are expected to turn down and Frist knew then that may be insider trading. Still, there needs to be some amount of proof.

No, there have been documents found which specifically show that Frist was receiving knowledge of his ownership of stocks in the family business while it was in a blind trust, so far I know.

It wasn't a matter of he knew he had some from before he held office...and decided to dump it because of medicare votes. He knew how much he had how much the blind trust had purchased over the years and he dumped it...convieniently. I don't know if he actually committed insider trader or not, but my understand it that its pretty clear his blind trust wasn't very blind.