Martha Stewart guilty on 4 counts

I just saw the news on this, Not surprised here either.

I'm not surprised either, but I continue to be irritated that they picked her to prosecute when corporate executives who have ruined the lives of thousands of people don't even get looked at for more than a moment. I may be wrong, but I just can't see where what Martha Stewart did deserves all of the attention and potential punishment she will receive!

I agree, lets go after the bigger picture here... She did know she was in the wrong, she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar...

Actually, she still maintains she did nothing wrong. She released a statement on www.marthatalks.com which says, in part:

Sorry, but this appears to be behind the power curve. It was indeed reported that after she had become a convicted felon her web site initially claimed that she still maintained that she had done nothing wrong. The media now report that this statement was fairly quickly eliminated from the web page. The thinking in many quarters is that her lawyers caused this change to be made.

Theories abound as to what might have motivated such a change.

Cheers,

Jim

I saw Hillary Clinton on the news suggesting that Martha was being made an example of because she is a woman and that the courts tend to be tougher on women charged with similiar crimes. Interesting thought.

I sort of agree with that statement that Hillary Clinton made. Corporate MALE head-honchos have been dishonest cheats for YEARS with no repercussions whatsoever!! (exceptions being Enron and Worldcom.) It is that way on the job market too. Every job I have ever had, the boys and men got away with lying, stealing, and laziness FAR more often than any woman. A couple of years ago, the then mayor of Cicero Il, Betty Loren Maltese, was put away for crimes that her male counterparts do ALL THE TIME and no one gives them a second thought, but SHE went to prison.

It was very stupid of Martha S. to lie. That is why she got in trouble, not for her selling the stock on an inside tip. If she had said, "gee I made a terrible mistake". This whole fiasco would have been avoided.

I pretty much agree with this, but I'm glad to see that at least they're starting to prosecute white collar crime in a criminal fashion.

What bothers me the most about the Martha Stewart case is stuff I never heard on the news (though it may have been mentioned at some point, I did not follow the story closely).

I know the firm where Martha Stewart began her career on Wall Street. She was a broker. The firm was caught back then committing illegal trading activities (especially as relates to new issues and investment banking deals, and it was a very small firm then - still is small) and that firm was banned then (until today) from participating in new issues.

Also, she was on the Board of the New York Stock Exchange.

So what bothers me the most about her is that she knew it was wrong. And she can maintain her innocence according to the letter of the law all she wants, but morally what she did was not right, whether technically illegal or not. She was trading the stock of a situation she was close to, and with 40,000 publicly traded securities, why trade that one? Why even risk it? She was already a multi-millionaire. It was stupid, unnecessary, and she knew better.

Gary and I do not trade the securities of the companies we work with. We manage some money for my parents, and we just avoid the situation. There are plenty of stocks out there to chose from, and it's not worth the risk. If you're close to a company and could even accidentally find yourself "insider trading" (even though that charge was dropped), just avoid it! And with her background, she knew the rules and laws. That's what pisses me off.