The Real Crimes of Martha Stewart

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, January 23, 2004 | MEGHAN COX GURDON

[presidio9]

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, we are here today in the Court of Public Opinion to hear of heinous crimes committed by Martha Stewart, the Dictator of Domesticity. I ask you to set aside any old-fashioned prejudices you may have in favor of self-improvement, and forget any qualms you have about blaming a complete stranger for your own feelings of inferiority.

[cyncooper]

The only people obsessed with the particular charge of "insider trading" are you and other Martha defenders.

Beyond all reason, I might say.

[AbsoluteJustice]

LOL TY, was just being fescious (SP?)
Thanks for the compliments though :)

[cyncooper]

You want her to stand trial and face prison time for share manipulation because she told the press she was innocent and you don't hate her?

You really are being ridiculous.

I said I'd like to hear the case. I didn't say I "want" her to "face prison time", but I'm indifferent if she's found guilty and does indeed face it.

Yes, get it straight: I do not hate Martha Stewart.

If she's found not guilty on all charges, well bully for her!

[presidio9]

The only people obsessed with the particular charge of "insider trading" are you and other Martha defenders.

I scanned the first 50 posts, which had a lot of repeat posters (including myself). In posts 6, 7, 11, 21, 25, and 44 six different people indicated that they thought she should go to jail for insider trading. On of those people was the person who called her a witch. In addition, a person in post 19 admitted that he or she knew nothing of the actual charges, but felt that Stewart should go to jail because she was a witch.

[presidio9]

Apparently you have no idea what a hardship it is to face criminal charges for anything. Personally, I wouldn't wish it on an enemy. But that's just me.

[wardaddy]

Indeed.

[cyncooper]

Good grief! I'm not "wishing it" on her.

Are you opposed to all trials?

[CobaltBlue]

No, I am reading from the indictment, Count Eight (Obstruction of Justice by Martha Stewart), which begins on page 34, and continuing on through Count Nine (Securities Fraud by Martha Stewart). I'd cut and paste it but can't figure out how to convert the Adobe Acrobat file to a text file using the free downloaded Adobe Acrobat. I've got the full version on my office computer but this is my home computer.

I am a lawyer, I know how to read an indictment.

[BoozeHag]

I'm no Martha Stewart, but I rushed to KMart for her tastefully colored garden hose. Speaking of getting hosed...what was it $4o,000 ?

[CobaltBlue]

I'd love your recipe for Yorkshire Pudding if you want to send it to me via Freepmail. Agreed about the recipe stealing, it isn't at all uncommon among the lesser luminaries in the cookbook pantheon. That's why I love things like Junior League cookbooks, where if the recipe doesn't work the donor is marked for life. -g-

As for being a fraud and a phony - maybe so, but I think she's just selling a fantasy, like many another self-made American. No, she's not really a blue-blooded WASP goddess from Connecticut, she's really a Polish girl from the wrong side of the tracks. But isn't that part of the fantasy? You, too, can act like a blue-blooded WASP from old money, if you buy her stuff.

[CobaltBlue]

Here's how the indictment against Steward is structured, in a nutshell.

1) 12/27/01, Martha gets a call from her stockbroker telling her that ImClone is probably going to tank.
2) She orders him to sell her shares.
3) The next day, ImClone tanks.
4) The FBI and the US Attorneys' office starts investigating.
5) Stewart lies to the investigators.
6) The AP reports Martha's sales on 6/6/02 and the day after MSLO starts to tank.
7) On 6/7/02, she gives a false statement about her sale of the ImClone stock to the Wall Street Journal.
8) On 6/12/02, she gives a false statement about her sale of the ImClone stock in what appears to have been a press release, but is called a "public statement."
9) On 6/18/02, prior to a meeting with stock analysts about MSLO, she again circulates a false "public statement" about her sale of the ImClone stock.
10) The reason for the false statements is to keep MSLO from tanking any further.

[CobaltBlue]

Since you either are, or used to be, a stockbroker, maybe you can enlighten us on this - the allegations in the indictment are that she got the insider information from her broker. Seems to me that the problem with charging her with insider information is proving that she knew it was insider information, since there is no proof that it came from Waksal, directly OR indirectly.

If I am right, that's why they didn't charge her with "insider trading."

As a factual matter, if a person with a seat on the NYSE gets a call from her broker telling her that a certain stock is going to tank, it might have been in her best interests to ask how he knew. But, as a lawyer, given what I know about the Fifth Amendment, if they both take the Fifth and neither can be enticed to roll over on the other, they're going to skate on that one.

Nevertheless, there was a criminal investigation going on, and Waksal is now doing time, and Stewart is now charged with lying about what she did and why.

[antaresequity]

Do you have a copy of any of the press release, statements or whatever they are?

I am sure they are out there.

I think this thread needs it.

[CobaltBlue]

IIRC at first she tried to claim that the sales WERE as the result of a standing stop-loss order. Her broker went along with it for a while, too. But there was no record of the order. Anywhere. Whoops.

[nopardons]

And have forgotten anything you may have known, when you were, or never knew enough to be a " good " one, since you don't know about the law which reuires WRITTEN " sell orders ", for an advance hit. :-)

[perfect stranger]

"She is being charged with securities fraud"

"No she is not...

"She is being charged with......Securites Fraud (relating to her comments and the price of her own stock, not ImClone) and Conspiracy"

---

Make up your mind! Is she being charged with securities fraud or not?

[antaresequity]

I posted a correction two posts below the original...

I meant she is not being charged with securities fraud in relation to IMCLONE... Sorry about the mispost

[SJackson]

Adobe PDF Conversion by Simple Form

Just paste the URL, usually works.

[nopardons]

I'll happily send you my recipe for Yorkshire Pudding and guarantee it'll work; unlike Martha's. LOL

When Martha started out, she hid who and what she really is/was. She didn't know anything about much, when she married Andy.

It was she, after all, who had won one of the 10 coveted " BEST DRESSED COLLEGE GIRLS IN AMERICA ",from GLAMOUR, wearing borrowed clothes, from wealthy girls, at Barnard.

It was Andy's mother, who she pumped about decorating. It was her insatiable desire to live like those with more money, that drove her into the arms of a BOILER ROOM operation, to cheat everyone she knew ( friends and family ) and those she didn't to buy stock she KNEW was worthless.

Her " fantasy world " isn't even lived by those ( such as the late Cece Guest ), whom she imagined it was. OTOH, there really ARE a lot of women who were doing a lot of the things she called her own,years before she ever even though of them. :-)

My daughter used to be on the Junior League Cookbook committee, and you're so right.She and that committee had to cook every recipe,to make sure that they worked !LOL

[nopardons]

I have most of them in hard copy;the newspaper clippings themselves. You can find a ton, in the N.Y.Post online archives.