DENVER -- Congressional investigators are examining whether Qwest Communications founder and director Philip Anschutz had advance knowledge of the company's looming financial problems when he sold $213 million in Qwest stock last year.

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the timing of the sales raises questions.

Anschutz is expected to be interviewed by committee investigators on Friday in Denver -- where Qwest is based.

The stock sales came during a period of time when managers were coping with increasingly bad news about the company -- which now also is under investigation by both Congress and the Securities Exchange Commission.