Free Republic

ImClone founder fined $800,000 SEC also bars Samuel Waksal from heading any public firm BREAKING NEWS ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK, March 11 — The Associated Press NEW YORK ImClone Systems founder Samuel Waksal has agreed to an $800,000 fine and a permanent ban on serving as head of any public company, government regulators said Tuesday. The agreement is a partial settlement of civil charges filed against Waksal by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the ImClone insider-trading scandal, the SEC said. The SEC claims Waksal was tipped off before the government announced a disappointing decision on ImClone's cancer drug Erbitux,...

Martha Stewart, the Queen of Nice? Martha Stewart insists she has "never not been nice to anybody" - and she doesn't understand why people take such delight in her insider trading troubles. Speaking out for the first time since the scandal broke in June, Stewart sounded bitter and frustrated about the dramatic reversal in her public image. "That I have been turned into or vilified openly as something other than what I really am has been confusing," Stewart, 61, told the New Yorker for an article in its issue out today. "I mean, we've produced a lot of good stuff...

"It's sort of the American way to go up and down the ladder, maybe several times in a lifetime," Martha Stewart tells Jeffrey Toobin in the February 3, 2003, issue of the NEW YORKER, DRUDGE has learned. "And I've had a real long up -- along the way my heels being bitten at for various reasons, maybe perfectionism, or maybe exactitude, or something. And now I've had a long way down." MORE After newspaper articles announcing that Stewart was being investigated for insider trading began to appear, Stewart says, Hillary Clinton called to express her support. "Look at her ups...

<p>WASHINGTON — ImClone Systems' board members admitted to Congress Thursday they knew their flashy chief executive had a long string of troubles — including forging the signature of a company lawyer — yet did not oust him until shortly before government investigators arrested him on charges of illegal inside trading.</p>

Prosecutors turned up the heat on Martha Stewart Wednesday when a stockbroker's assistant admitted taking a payoff to keep silent about an alleged insider stock trade by the home decorating diva. Douglas Faneuil, 27, pleaded guilty as part of a deal to testify against Stewart and others who might be charged in connection with sales of ImClone Systems Inc. shares last December. He admitted to a misdemeanor charge of receiving money and other valuables "as consideration for not informing." Faneuil worked at Merrill Lynch for Stewart's broker, Peter Bacanovic. Immediately after the plea, the firm announced that both Bacanovic and...

A Merrill Lynch & Co. brokerage assistant has agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and provide testimony to federal prosecutors against Martha Stewart and others for their suspicious sales of ImClone Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM: IMCL - News) stock late last year, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The plea agreement by Douglas Faneuil marks a crucial step in the investigation into the trading of ImClone shares that has ensnarled the company's former chief executive, the already-indicted Samuel Waksal, as well as Ms. Stewart. It also indicates that prosecutors could be moving closer to filing...

Samuel D. and Harlan W. Waksal, the two top executives of ImClone Systems, ordered paper shredders in early January, just as federal investigations of the company were beginning, the company said in a letter sent to Congress on Friday. The letter says that the shredder for Harlan Waksal, now the company's chief executive, was ordered by his assistant, with Harlan Waksal playing "no role in the decision" other than "signing a routine purchase order, the contents of which he did not review." The letter, sent by a lawyer representing ImClone to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also said that...

Martha Stewart is lying low while investigators comb through her personal files, but the rest of the characters caught up in the ImClone insider trading scandal are living it up as if they don't have a care in the world. Stewart's socially connected Merrill Lynch broker, Peter Bacanovic, at first escaped to England to avoid the media spotlight, but for the past six weeks has been partying away on Fire Island. The handsome society walker, who loves to escort society's grand dames to balls and charity events, has been "out at Fire Island almost the entire summer," said our source....

<p>Last week's insider trading lawsuit against Martha Stewart looks already to be little more than an opportunistic shakedown effort by some class-action lawyers. But the attention the suit is getting shows just how ready folks now are to believe the worst about CEOs in general - and Martha in particular. In her Congress-defying pose of demanding to be taken at her word in the ImClone Systems insider trading affair - while bizarrely saying almost nothing publicly about the matter at all - America's dominatrix of domesticity has already been judged a liar in the court of public opinion. And this in turn has stripped from her the most precious resource any public figure has: the integrity of her name.</p>

Martha Stewart dumped 1,000 pages of documents about the ImClone stock mess on congressional investigators yesterday barely beating their deadline.But the lawmakers still weren't happy.They said some of the documents they got from Stewart had portions blacked out.'We did notice that a number of documents were redacted,' House Energy and Commerce Committee spokesman Ken Johnson told the Daily News.'The attorneys told us that the documents requested contained financial information not related to ImClone. We have told them to bring in original copies for our investigaors to review.'We're not in a trust me mood right now. Any time you recieve documents...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  Executives of the troubled biotech firm ImClone Systems Inc. may have destroyed records sought by congressional investigators, a House committee chairman said Monday.</p> <p>In addition, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said there is evidence that the former president of ImClone, Samuel Waksal, lied to panel investigators.</p>

Corporate Scandals and Accounting “Irregularities” (By Rob Klein) ---- www.scoogiespin.com ========================================================= By now you should be familiar with all of the recent corporate scandals, especially the accounting irregularities. Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Imclone, Adelphia Communications, and good old Martha Stewart, are just a few names, which come to my mind. I am an investment professional by trade, and I have seen investors’ portfolios devastated by these scandals. Fortunately, I had only a minor exposure to WorldCom, and my clients avoided many of these disasters. A coworker of mine referred to the scandals as corporate suicide bombings. I can not use...

On Dec. 5, 2001, ImClone Systems, a biotech company that was seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for a promising anti-cancer drug called Erbitux, saw its stock peak at a price of $74 a share and begin an earthward trajectory. On the evening of Dec. 6, ImClone’s chief executive, Sam Waksal, 54, threw his annual Christmas party at the 5,000-square-foot Thompson Street loft that he calls home. Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman was in attendance, as well as former New York Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal and art dealer Larry Gagosian. Film producer Keith Barish put in a brief appearance,...

Poll on Martha Stewart. Libs must have gotten to this one.Did Martha Stewart's friendship with IMClone CEO help her know when to sell her stock in IMClone? Yes 30% No 48% Too early to tell 22% Poll Link Here

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  Reversing course, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she would donate thousands of dollars she received from indicted ImClone founder Sam Waksal to charity.</p> <p>Clinton and a soft money account set up on her behalf by Democrats received $33,000 from Waksal, campaign finance records show.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Home fashion executive Martha Stewart should be subpoenaed to answer questions about her sale of ImClone shares a day before they plummeted, a member of a congressional panel said Thursday. "Bring her in and if she wants to take the fifth (Fifth Amendment), that's her right. That's her legal right," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. Appearing on NBC's "Today" show, the Michigan Democrat, a member of a House investigative panel looking into the transaction, said that if Stewart hasn't responded to a request for information by Aug. 20, she should be forced to appear. The House Energy...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former ImClone Systems chief executive Samuel Waksal was indicted on Wednesday for securities fraud in an alleged insider trading scam that has made Waksal a symbol for stock shenanigans in corporate America. He also was charged for bank fraud and obstruction of justice. Waksal, 54, of New York, had been trying to reach a plea deal with federal prosecutors for weeks in an effort to avoid the grand jury indictment. He had been arrested in June on a complaint filed by federal prosecutors. Authorities allege he tried to sell his stock and tipped off family members...

Don't want to talk to Congress? Go to jail...Sam was just indicted on insider trading...turning a possible deal with the government to nail Martha Stewart.

- Federal prosecutors believe Ms. Stewart and Dr. Waksal, close friends who share a stockbroker, also shared information about ImClone, the company Dr. Waksal ran before stepping down and being arrested on insider trading charges. Prosecutors allege Dr. Waksal told his father and one of his two daughters they should sell stock in the company because the Food and Drug Administration would be announcing they were denying an application by ImClone to proceed with the cancer drug Erbitux. Prosecutors planned to indict Dr. Waksal last week but changed course at the last minute when Dr. Waksal’s lawyers reportedly said their...

Martha Stewart's embattled stockbroker Peter Bacanovic has been spending his days out of sight, chatting with friends on the phone, writing thank-you notes to well-wishers and huddling with lawyers, a new report says. Bacanovic, currently holed up at a friend's house as the ImClone scandal continues to brew, has also been fielding phone calls from friends and questioning why he ever hired Douglas Faneuil as his assistant, New York magazine reports this week. Bacanovic client Stewart unloaded 3,928 shares of ImClone stock on Dec. 27, a day before the Food and Drug Administration nixed a key application for Erbitux, the...