MARTHA STEWART INDICTED BY FEDERAL GRAND JURY

ABC News ^ | June 4, 2003 | Charlie Gibson

[ewing]

Update as of 11:49 EST:

June 4

— Martha Stewart has been indicted by a federal grand jury and is expected in court today, ABCNEWS has learned.

She and her attorney are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan around noon today.

Stewart, 61, is under investigation for selling 4,000 shares of biotechnology company ImClone shortly before the Food and Drug Administration rejected the company's application for approval for a drug for colon cancer, sending the company's stock plummeting.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission have been looking into whether Stewart had advance word of the news. Stewart is friends with ImClone founder Samuel Waksal, who is expected to be sentenced for criminal fraud on Tuesday.

Stewart's lawyer, Robert Morvillo, has said that she will declare her innocence and proceed to trial if she is indicted.

Among the criminal charges Stewart might face are obstruction of justice, lying to federal investigators and possibly insider trading. She may also face a civil lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission for securities fraud.

The scandal has put a cloud over the domestic doyenne's empire over the past year.

[mabelkitty]

YES! Knock "Lying History" OFF THE PAGES!!

[Registered]

...meanwhile the K-MART advertising department works feverishly to change this Sunday's insert.

[bonfire]

Wonder if she will bring her homemade cranberry muffins to the jury?

[js1138]

YES! Knock "Lying History" OFF THE PAGES!!

This could suck all the Oxygen out of Hillary.

[Thane_Banquo]

Excellent.

[js1138]

Or all the Hillary out of Oxygen.

[Stone Mountain]

MARTHA SWEWART INDICTED BY FEDERAL GRAND JURY

And that's a good thing... : )

[bonfire]

No K-Marts here. They closed them all down.

[ewing]

This thing might suck the oxygen out of the Peterson case, Martha is claiming 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' and WANTS to go to trial..

[b4its2late]

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning......"

[ewing]

How about Tiffany handcuffs?

[Salvation]

She will get what she deserves.

[Thane_Banquo]

"Smells like... Victory!"

[ewing]

It's the smell of a publicity victory over Hillary.. early in the monring baby!

[veronica]

You know, she's a mean Mary, and she should have known better, but indicting her is absurd. She's being punished for her success - for being insufferably perfect and rich. On the other hand, the evil side of me would love to see Oprah in her shoes. Oprah's too big for her britches these days, and so smarmy to boot. :)

[dogbyte12]

I bet she knits a seat cover for the john in her cell within a week.

[Xenalyte]

Might you please fix the jailbird's surname in the title so searches pick it up? Many thanks!

[job]

For someone who has a tagline loaded with religous paraphenalia, seems like you of all people would know that we all should get what we deserve. And in God's eyes, Martha's transgressions are no more egregious than our own, committed every day. By God's grace and mercy, we don't get what we deserve.

[ewing]

And America is popping the popcorn right now to watch the trial..

[bonfire]

Wonder if she'll come out with a line of Martha Stewart License Plates?

[Grampa Dave]

I wonder how much she will be donating to the DNC and the Hildebea$t now.

Martha was one of the biggest donors to the DNC and to the Hildebea$t in the 2000 election cycle.

[Constitution Day]

[dogbyte12]

What do you mean she doesn't deserve this? This woman's stock value was over half a billion dollars at the time, her good friend got news that his companies medicine was getting rejected by the FDA the next day.

Martha dumped stock for $225k profit the day before the bad news came out. In case you aren't aware, Martha used to be a stock broker. No, she wasn't Heloise, making hints from home, and then growing into a national name. Martha worked on Wall Street, quit, and got into the catering business.

She knows better, she got caught, she tried to cover it up. She needs to go to jail.

[jgrubbs]

[Carry_Okie]

Martha Stewart indicted by a Grand Jury of mere commoners?

How quaint!

[Chad Fairbanks]

[Chad Fairbanks]

GMTA

[bonfire]

Hilarious!

[Constitution Day]

< grins >

I like yours better... easier to read.

[eureka!]

"YES! Knock "Lying History" OFF THE PAGES!!"

Good point. Hehehehe.........

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Oprah's too big for her britches these days...

Most days.

[chiefqc]

Greed has no limits when you assume you are rich enough to be above the law.

The 250,000.00 she made during this deal is so small in the the overall picture. She had more money than she knew what to do with, but greed took over.

You did the crime, now do the time.

I know I won't lose any sleep over the concern of her going to prison. Maybe she can share a cell with tiny the 300 ponud dyke.

[al_c]

'Bout time!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this. The site for my big cover page of this has disappeared.

[jgrubbs]

[bonfire]

Yeah.....but her makeover shows ROCK!

[veronica]

Maybe so. But in so far as she knocks Hillary! off the front pages, I'm all for that. Dueling witches....:))

[ewing]

Oh im sure Martha will become the poster child for Hillarys VRWC in the media..but its going to be awfully fun to watch what happens the next few days

Marthas 'walk of shame/perp walk' on the cover of the New York Post, hiring David Boies or another mega buck attorney..

[Constitution Day]

See #27.

[myprecious]

Today, we will be making a beautiful wall plaque.

We copied the federal incictment papers onto a lovely parchment paper that we had stained with oolong tea. Notice how the rich hues of the paper accents the flourish of the court's heading. What a nice touch.

We will gently burn the edge of the paper to product a rustic, worn look and to symbolize of disdain for this ridiculous charge.

For the backing, I have selected a reminate from the door I kicked in at the office of that weasel stock trader. It is a good thing.

[Brian S]

but indicting her is absurd.

I agree with you and this could very well backfire on the DOJ. Already I am hearing that this is a "get the sucessful women" male vendetta. Haven't heard the claim that is being targeted because "she is a big rat donor" yet, but I'm sure its coming soon.

This should be interesting to watch.

[cinFLA]

'Bout time!

7:41 PDT and CNBC still reporting NOT indicted.

[gov_bean_ counter]

The FDA employee with the big mouth should be out there with her. I refuse to believe that this is the first time he(she) has given an interested party the heads up on an impending action.

[ewing]

Iroincally her 250k stock profit cost her 400 million when her stock went through the floor..

[HEY4QDEMS]

[HairOfTheDog]

I think this is a sad development.

I just don't look at Martha Stewart and see "threat to society" that needs to be jailed.

[ewing]

ROTFLOL!

[Miss Marple]

I am afraid I must agree with dogbyte12, veronica. She was indeed, a stockbroker, and well aware of the rules governing sales based on insider information.

In addition, she lied about how the sale came about and has fought every effort to get at the truth.

If she had pled guilty when this first surfaced, she probably could have gotten off with a fine. Instead, she is going to trial.

The net result of this is that thousands of investors in OmniMedia will lose lots of money through no fault of their own, but rather because she was greedy and broke the law.

I am afraid she bought into the unfortunate idea, so common during the Clinton years, that the law was for "other people" but that she would be protected by her contacts. The DOJ doesn't work that way any more.