Martha's Mess
Martha Stewart has been formally charged with obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. These charges have come about as a result of an investigation into her selling of Imclone stock the day before the Food and Drug Administration announced rejecting of an Imclone drug application. She has claimed that she is innocent of all charges.
Here we have a woman worth an estimated $1 billion, selling stock to save a potential loss of about $42,000. Even if, as she stated, she had a sell order with her broker for $60, the impression of impropriety in the sale should have been enough for someone worth over $1 billion to come out and say that to eliminate any impression of impropriety, she would give back any monies she may have gained from the sale while not admitting any guilt. But as with many wealthy individuals, they can do no wrong not matter what the circumstances. Stewart's 'I don't care that the sale appeared to be inappropriate, I'm going down fighting' attitude has put her in more hot water that if she had in-fact' sold the stock on insider information and admitted it.
It will take months if not years for this case to be resolved. In the meantime, her company will remain under a cloud, she will be grist for that late night talk shows and there will continue to be speculation as to whether or not she might be guilty of the charges and subject to jail time. So much for 'I don't give a damn what it looks like'.
07/06/03 ( 452 )
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