March 4, 2005
Billionaire Martha Stewart has been released from prison after serving a five-month prison sentence for lying in her 2001 insider trading case on ImClone.
Martha Stewart, the “queen” of American television’s housekeeping, did it all: She cooked, gave decorating tips, shared DIU ideas, and at the same time made a lot of money from it. She had expanded to television, magazines, books, radio and the internet, and was selling her own products. The day her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, went public with her share tripling in 2000, Stewart became America’s first self-made female billionaire. Reasonably, then, the media followed her involvement with the law, minute by minute.
Cameras covered her exit from the federal prison near Alderson, West Virginia, from where Stewart went to Greenbrier Airport and flew in a rented jet to New York. There, she would remain under house arrest for the next five months on her 620-acre estate in Bedford, New York.
Her adventure with justice began on December 21, 2001, when Stewart sold about 4,000 shares in ImClone Systems, a company led by her friend San Wuxal, which develops anti-cancer drugs.
The next day, the company’s stock sank when it became known that ImClone’s newest drug, Erbitux, had been rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Waxall, who also sold shares before learning of the drug rejection, was arrested on insider trading charges and later sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
When questioned about the sale of her shares in June 2002, Stewart denied having inside information and said she had sold the shares as part of an earlier deal with Merrill Lynch’s stockbroker Peter Bakanovic.
The following month, Bakanovic was made available by Merrill Lynch when investigators were unable to confirm that such an agreement actually existed. And in September 2002, the US Department of Justice began investigating the sale of Stewart’s shares and the possibility of insider trading.
A year ago, Stewart was charged with stock fraud and obstruction of justice, forcing the businesswoman to resign as president and CEO of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Her trial began in February 2003.
During the trial, Bakanovic’s former aide testified that he had been instructed by his boss to inform Stewart that he could sell the ImClone shares he owned. A friend later testified that Stewart had told him she knew San Wuxal was trying to sell the shares before she sold hers.
The judge did not find sufficient evidence for the stock market fraud, but convicted Stewart of all other charges: conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Polls at the time showed that many Americans were in favor of her imprisonment, while others believed that Stewart had fallen victim to overly strict prosecutors.
On July 16, 2004, he was sentenced to five months in prison and five months under house arrest, as well as a $ 30,000 fine. He probably fell into the “soft”, after facing up to 16 years in prison.
Although there were fears that her legal problems would affect her business empire, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s share rose dramatically while she was in prison, quadrupling her value by the time she was released.
As soon as she finished her home booking, Stewart started working on two new TV shows. Unlike other celebrities who had problems with justice, her profile was not affected by the scandal.
Years later, Stewart talked about her experience in prison. “They say that when life gives you lemons, you can make lemonade. How what does not kill you makes you stronger. No. None of these sayings fit. It is a horrible experience. “There is nothing good about it, nothing.” And this, despite the fact that the billionaire served her sentence in what is also known as “Camp Cupcake”, or otherwise the most comfortable prison in the USA.
Money Review
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