bad news for doug ;-).
<http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/05/news/companies/martha_verdict/index.htm?cnn=yes>
--ravi
Stewart convicted on all charges
Jury finds style maven, ex-broker guilty of obstructing justice and
lying to investigators.
March 5, 2004: 3:32 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A jury found Martha Stewart guilty on all four
counts against her in her obstruction of justice trial Friday and is
expected to serve prison time.
Her ex-broker Peter Bacanovic was found guilty on four of the five
charges he faced.
Neither defendant appeared to show any emotion when the verdict was
read, though the lead prosecutor appeared to be holding back tears of joy.
Sentencing was set for June 17.
The jury deliberated for three days after a five-week trial.
The panel of eight women and four men began deliberating Wednesday on
whether Stewart and her ex-broker, Peter Bacanovic, obstructed justice
and lied to the government about her sale of ImClone stock in December 2001.
Stewart, 62, was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and
two counts of making false statements – charges that together carry a
penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Bacanovic, 41, was convicted of making false statements, conspiracy,
perjury and obstruction of justice – with a maximum prison term of 25
years. He was acquitted on a charge of making and using of false documents.
Both Stewart and Bacanovic left the courthouse without speaking to
reporters. Eyewitnesses said Stewart's daughter Alexis was crying.
Stewart said on her Web site that she would appeal.
But the homemaker turned style setter and media executive could still do
jail time.
"Unless this is somehow undone on appeal, she's a felon and she's going
to prison," legal analyst Kendall Coffey said.
Prosecutors argued that Stewart sold her ImClone stock only after
Bacanovic told his assistant to tip her off that ImClone founder Sam
Waksal was trying to sell. Stewart and Bacanovic had told investigators
they had an arrangement to sell once the stock fell to $60.
Bacanovic was broker to both Stewart and Waksal, who is serving a
seven-year prison term after pleading guilty to securities fraud over
his family's sale of ImClone shares.
Bacanovic's former assistant, Douglas Faneuil, the government's star
witness in the case, testified that his boss ordered him to pass an
inside tip about ImClone to Stewart.
Despite the intense publicity surrounding the trial – the most closely
watched of the recent corporate fraud cases – the stock trade at its
center involved a relatively small amount of money.
