07-16-2004, 10:04 AM
|
#16 (permalink)
|
|
Banned
|
Let's look at the nature of Martha's lies:
Link
Quote:
Key developments in the ImClone case
Oct. 31, 2001 -- ImClone Systems submits application for approval of its cancer drug Erbitux to the Food and Drug Administration.
Dec. 27 -- Martha Stewart sells 3,928 shares of ImClone for $58 a share. Family members of Samuel Waksal, chief executive of the biotech company and a close friend of Ms. Stewart, sell more than $9 million in ImClone stock. Dr. Waksal also tries selling nearly $5 million worth of shares, but two brokerage firms refuse to execute the order.
Dec. 28 -- The FDA announces its refusal to review ImClone's Erbitux application. The company's stock plunges 16% on Dec. 31, the first day of trading after the news.
Jan. 7, 2002 -- Ms. Stewart's broker at Merrill Lynch Co., Peter Bacanovic, meets with an SEC investigator and says he personally spoke with Ms. Stewart on Dec. 27, 2001, the day she sold her shares. He also says he and Ms. Stewart had spoken on Dec. 20, agreeing to sell ImClone if it fell below $60 a share.
Jan. 31 -- Ms. Stewart's assistant, Ann Armstrong, finds her boss altering and then restoring the record of Mr. Bacanovic's Dec. 27 phone message about ImClone.
Feb. 4 -- Ms. Stewart tells FBI agents she couldn't recall if her office would have a record of a phone message from Mr. Bacanovic on Dec. 27.
Feb. 13 -- Mr. Bacanovic meets with federal agents and lies about the exchange on Dec. 27, saying he spoke with Ms. Armstrong, not Ms. Stewart, that day.
April 10 -- In a phone interview, Ms. Stewart tells FBI agents she didn't recall her assistant reading her the message or getting a message from Mr. Bacanovic on Dec. 27.
June 12 -- FBI agents arrest Dr. Waksal on securities-fraud charges. He is accused of trying to sell ImClone stock and tipping off family members after learning a day in advance that regulators would reject the cancer drug. Ms. Stewart declares her innocence amid suggestions she may have been tipped off. She admits calling Dr. Waksal the day of her trade but says she didn't reach him. She says the stock sale was triggered by a prior agreement with Mr. Bacanovic.
June 22 -- Merrill places Mr. Bacanovic and a sales assistant, Douglas Faneuil, on leave after receiving "conflicting accounts" from the two over whether they had established an agreement with Ms. Stewart to sell her shares.
June 26 -- Federal prosecutors widen their probe to include possible obstruction of justice and making false statements.
Aug. 7 -- Dr. Waksal is indicted on charges of securities fraud for trying to sell shares and for tipping off others to sell their stock before the Erbitux news broke. Dr. Waksal later pleads not guilty.
Aug. 21 -- A Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia shareholder sues Ms. Stewart and other company officers, alleging they sold company stock before the shares fell sharply on news of the federal probe into insider trading.
Sept. 10 -- Congressional investigators ask the Justice Department to look into the stock sale.
October 15 -- Dr. Waksal pleads guilty to tipping off family members, lying to investigators and asking his daughter to lie to the SEC.
March 11, 2003 -- Dr. Waksal agrees, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, to pay $800,000 to settle part of a civil lawsuit by the SEC and admits illegally avoiding taxes on $15 million of art work.
June 4 -- Ms. Stewart and Mr. Bacanovic are indicted and plead not guilty. Ms. Stewart resigns as head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
June 10 -- Dr. Waksal is sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for insider-trading, obstructing justice and dodging taxes. He also is ordered to pay a $3 million fine and $1.2 million in taxes.
Jan. 27, 2004 -- After a week of jury selection, opening statements begin in the trial of Ms. Stewart and Mr. Bacanovic.
Feb. 27 -- Judge Cedarbaum dismisses the most serious of the charges against Ms. Stewart, the accusation of securities fraud.
March 3 -- Jury begins deliberations.
March 5 -- Ms. Stewart is convicted on two counts of making false statements, one of conspiracy and one of obstruction of justice. Mr. Bacanovic is convicted of one count each of making false statements, conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice, but found not guilty on one count of making and using false documents.
July 16 -- Ms. Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement, and fined $30,000, closing another chapter in the legal battle that has its roots in a stock trade made two and a half years ago.
|
Marth did lie. Consider, however, the impact of how she has been treated. The Fed's were investigating management fraud in ImClone that cost shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars. With the way Martha was handled by the FBI, additional losses of hundreds of millions of dollars were incurred by MSO shareholders. Yes, lying to the government is wrong. But in their zeal to make Martha into an example, the Feds caused more harm than that done by her original lie. If she were not such a high profile individual, she would have received a fine at most. |
|
|