People seem to forget that Martha's secretary testified during the trial that Martha, after being confronted on the "illegal" stock sale, had ordered her (the secretary) to delete the computerized phone call ledger which logged the fact that Martha had spoken to the stock broker.
The secretary did as she was told, but Martha, upon reflection, and obviously realizing she would be committing double deceipt, told the secretary to undelete the initial deletion.
To me, this was a huge factor. It indicated that Martha was aware she was doing something wrong, and was going to cover it up.
Later, when questioned by the feds, Martha played dumb, like she didn't have a clue as to why they would think she traded her Imclone shares on insider information.
Don't forget, she's best friends with Waskal, the Imclone CEO, or whatever his name is.
Bottom line. You can't trade on illegal information, even if you are not the one who generated that illegal insider information.
For example, if you were walking down the street and a bank robber accidentally drops a bundle of cash at your feet, you are not allowed to keep it.
And if you did, you would/could be charged as an accessory to the crime for not coming foreward to tell the cops that the robber had dropped the cash as he fled.
A tyrant's phrase that. You might also say guns are illegal, or books. Or anything else you fancy.
Amigo, only ACTIONS OF HUMANS are illegal, and one of the bulwarks of a free society is that information itself is never "illegal".