Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has publicly defended himself against allegations of insider trading by insisting that he was not aware of inside information when he sold his stock in Hospital Corporation of America, the hospital chain founded by his father and brother. He has also stated, numerous times since his election to the Senate, that because his HCA securities were in a “qualified blind trust,” he could not even be certain about the extent of his holdings at any given time. Frist’s civil and criminal exposure under the securities laws is likely to turn on interpretations of Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b5-1, which addresses trading “on the basis of” material nonpublic information in insider trading cases.
FRIST’S HCA TRANSACTIONS
