Congressional hearings for an alleged insider trade that netted $200K?
Posted on 8/24/2002, 7:35:46 PM by Becwin
Edited on 4/13/2004, 9:16:33 AM by Jim Robinson. [history]
Martha Stewart is learning the hard way that hell hath no fury like politicians scorned -- especially during an election year. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities & Exchange Commission already are investigating the domestic doyenne's sale of ImClone Systems stock (IMCL ). And there are no holds barred in a parallel House Energy & Commerce Committee investigation of whether Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO ), was guilty of insider trading when she dumped 3,928 ImClone shares a day before the Food & Drug Administration rejected the tiny biotech company's application for approval of its anticancer drug.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Congressional hearings for an alleged insider trade that netted $200K?
The fact that she's been a huge dem giver is icing on the cake for the GOP.
If this is what the legislature thinks they should be spending their time on, they are probably more interested in the publicity with the voters, than upholding the law.
Because they have found their sacrifical goat?
It's the "vast right wing conspiracy' theory all over again.
Amusing defense.
And to top it all off, she is now crying "victim" and claiming that the big bad Repubbies are after her because she donates to Democrats.
Stewart is lying, pure and simple. As a former broker, she was well aware of the relevant securities law. This is a classic case of insider trading on information that had a direct impact on the stock and that was not available to the investing public. Please don't try and tell me you don't think she knew about the impending FDA ruling.
I like Stweart too, and admire the gumption with which she built her business. But I don't shed any tears for her now. She was stupid and arrogant, and she is paying the price for it.
And IMPEACHMENT was just about sex. (Do you also like bill clinton?)
I don't like either - THEY BOTH LIED UNDER OATH.
If you or I did that we'd be in jail.
So what? The Congress cannot indict. That's the job of the Dept. of Justice.
The Congress is just looking for TV exposure. That's the first thing that Martha should have known - never get between a Congressman and a TV camera.
Have you ever watched a Congressional "hearing"? The first hour, or two, or three, or more are used up by bloviating Representatives or Senators playing to the cameras in their "opening statements".
Sure. 1) She's a CEO of a major NYSE firm. Even though the transaction doesn't involve her own company's stock or that much money, it's still a CEO committing sleazy acts to get insider information not available to the public. It doesn't look good to the public that Queen Martha got to cash in while millions of regular investors lost their shirts on ImClone. Congress has to go after her or else be seen as hypocrites when it comes to investigating Enron, Worldcom, etc.
2) She's apparently done a Clinton and lied to Congress (perjury). Like the article says, the coverup is always going to get you in more trouble than the original charge, even if it turns out that she DIDN'T engage in insider trading.
3) People despise her, and I mean really SERIOUSLY despise her. She's kind of like Rosie O'Donnell: A Queen of Nice as long as the camera are rolling, but a bitter, vindictive, pass-the buck, I'm-better-than-you, f*ck-all-you-lowlife-staffers sort of woman in real life. She's burned so many bridges over the years that a sizable portion of the country, and especially people in the Northeast Corridor, cannot WAIT to see her finally get her smackdown. You can be sure lots of people are calling their Congressmen and demanding she be investigated.
4) In addition to being a CEO, Martha sits on the board of the NYSE. And before she became the Design Doyenne, she actually WAS a stockbroker. Thus, if there's any person on this planet that knows to the letter what the rules are regarding insider trading, it's Martha Stewart. There's no way in hell she can feign ignorance of "confusing SEC regulations." If she did the crime, she did it with the full knowledge that it was illegal, but was so blatantly greedy that she had no qualms about violating federal laws just to get a profit that means to her about as much as a $50 bonus means to any of us ... because, after all, she's Martha Stewart and you're not. People with that level of arrogance and condescention towards the Little People and law enforcement authorities tend to get nailed far worse for a given crime than someone that just admitted immediately that they did something wrong and shows true remorse for their actions, instead of trying to get their broker or their broker's barely-out-of-college assistant to take the full rap.
Besides, considering all the hearings and investigations Congress conducts every single day that either have no meaning at all or are purely ideologically-based, it's rather nice to see them focusing on allegations of actual lawbreaking for a change.
Then why are the Democrats in Congress as eager to pursue this investigation as the Republicans?
No she is not, and yes I can.....she is a typical Kennedy/Clinton liberal: "Rules and Regulations are for others, not moi". I hope she's getting a good scare out of all this.
Which is why Congress doesn't have to indict: They've got the Justice Dept to do it for them. Obstruction of a Congressional investigation and lying under oath to Congress are violations of federal law, not violations of mere internal rules of Congress.
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