F~ her! She was a broker before she was the Queen of the Home Scene. She knew exactly what she was doing, and her and her broker conspired to blame the broker's Registered Associate (i.e. my job) for the whole thing.

"You go to Hell! you go to Hell and die!"
Mr. Hat to Kyle 2001
Me to Martha 2004

Okay, will you at least sign a petition to Free Winona Ryder?

I'm all about a free Winona Ryder. I'm even more for Winona freeing the puppies.

"Let the puppies breathe..."

Insider trading is a victimless crime. The amount of money she stood to make if she was indeed trading illegally is absolutely paltry compared to the rest of her assets. We're talking spare change.

Of course, she was convicted of lying to the government, not insider trading. The one thing that pisses me off is that there are numerous examples of people BLATANTLY breaking the law in huge, horrible ways (*cough*BUSH ADMINISTRATION*cough*) but we have to make an exception for a middle aged white woman whose only real crime is that she's successful.

I halfway think she snubbed some important person's wife at a dinner party or something and this is how they got even with her.

Sarah, the victims are the other stockholders who
1)Didn't get to sell their stock at the higher prices and
2)Had stock that was worth less, because when you dump a bunch of stock, the price goes down.

Yes, I agree what the Bush Admin. is doing is much worse, but that's a different point.

You see, I work in a brokerage, and talk to many people who think they are better than the rest of the world because they are rich, that the rules should not apply to them because of who they are. Invariably, year after year, the rules get tighter and tougher for the average Joe because of these bastards. Peter Bacanovic should get 5 times her prison time for even telling her about another client's acct, let alone tell her how that client was trading. Not only was she a former broker, but she was currently CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Between the two, she knows more about inside trading, how to do it, why it's illegal, and the penalties than 99% of the country.
Also, she was charged by the SEC with Illegal Insider Trading.
Her only crime was not being successful. It was thinking she was above the law, because she's successful.

I see you point, Lunchbox, but as an investor, I can't say that I've seen any reprocussions on my end from this kind of behavior from the big guys. Maybe that's just not seeing the forest for the trees, of course. We don't *know* for a fact that that's what Martha was doing, trying to make a shady deal and got caught in the act. Certainly, you can argue that it looks like it, but do we know for sure? No. So, from my end, I'd like to remain open minded about it.

She may have been charged with illegal insider trading, but she was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements. Didn't prove she illegally traded stock, just that she got punished for acting guilty.

I was unable to make a link thingy. So, go to
altonbrown.com, select "rants and raves" from the menu in the left side of the screen, and scroll down to the letter titled "Dear Martha". I think he does a good job of summing up my opinion about the deal.

She did wrong, she needs to be accountable, and she is doing that. Why her before others? Perhaps its because she is a personal friend of the Clintons and a large $$$ contributor to the Democratic Party.

Sid

One thing to keep in mind is that knowing what the repercussions could be to her own company, and her stockholders. Her stock, Martha Stewart Omnimedia (MSO), went from a high of $17 on March 5, '04, to last night's closing price of $8.55. So her indiscretion led to her investors, the people that trusted her with their money, to lose half of everything they invested in her, strictly due to this incident. These are the real victims.