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Martha Stewart


tightloop

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Martha's in Federal court because of the nature of the charges (securities). The Federal system now has rather rigid sentencing guidelines for the judges - not a ton of lee way.

Also, the Federal system has basically removed parol, so the convicted generally serve at least 80%+ of the sentence.

I don't wish anyone a prison term, but trust in the public market is paramount to our economic system.

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It appears she will have to do jail time...

Yeah, but it will be in one of those "club Fed" spas and recreational centers. My wife drilled in the Naval Reserve Center at San Leandro which overlooked one of those minimum security fed "prisons". It had more tennis courts than Wimbledon. All the guys were out working on their backhands. It's a tough life if you're rich.

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maybe it isn't like Rikkers Island or San Quenten but she will forever be labeled, FELON, and that is a tough thing to handle. Wonder how many of her Democratic Liberal Media Idiots will welcome her back or visit her in prison, folks like Oprah, Barbara WaWa, Katie (Left Wing) Couric, et al...

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Oddly, Marty (my pet name for her) is about as conservative as the day is long. (I had Thanksgiving dinner with an ex-boyfriend of hers a couple years ago. A very enlightening experience...)

What's really stupid is that all she had to do was admit guilt, tell the truth and sacrifice a couple bucks. The total loss in stock value she avoided was in the neighborhood of $200K - if I remember correctly. When you're a billionaire, that's about as boneheaded move as you can make. Even if it meant I ended up broke and on the street, I'd rather lose $200K than wear blaze orange jammies for the next decade.

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(I had Thanksgiving dinner with an ex-boyfriend of hers a couple years ago. A very enlightening experience...)

Do elaborate.

Like a lot (most?) of public figures, the presented image and the off-camera personality aren't terribly similar. I'll leave it at that. (Don't try to draw a lot of conclusions from that.)

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I have a thread of pitty for her.

She did something that 90+% of people would do if they had the information.....

I sure as hell don't want to lose $223,000 in the market.

The bad thing, as EricW pointed out, is that she didn't have the integrity (ok, brains) to admit her illegal activity when given the chance ...and she will pay.

How do we prevent the temptation of illegal trading?

How many un-famous people did this last year and got AWAY with it?

Her high profile nature is what did-her-in. If she was your neighbor, would this be as big of a situation?

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You're all assuming she's really guilty!

She's innocent, I tell you! Martha has been railroaded by The Man!

There's something wrong with a country that can't convict OJ for what he did, but can convict St. Martha on phony, trumped-up charges.

:angry:

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There's something wrong with a country that can't convict OJ for what he did, but can convict St. Martha on phony, trumped-up charges.

My understanding is that she wasn't prosecuted for insider trading, she was convicted for lying and obstruction of justice. The government went after her for blabbering lie after bald-faced lie to the investigators. And she was deservedly made an example of for it.

I've had the opportunity (misfortune?) to deal with some high-powered personalities in the past and the two common denominators are charisma and megalomania. It's a powerful and dangerous combination. I, too, feel a touch of pity for Martha because it wasn't so much the monetary loss that drove her, but the "the rules don't apply to me anymore" attitude that comes with the psychology of success.

There's a lesson here.

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Hmm...she's definitely going to do time. Without busting out the Federal Sentencing Guidelines book, I'd guess at least a couple years. No mitigation for cooperating, etc.

IIRC, the main charge (that stuck) stems from when she released a statement saying there was nothing wrong and that she was innocent. The government said this statement was an effort to deceive shareholders of HER stock (Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Inc.) to prop up the value.

The other was for lying to the government about the sale of stock. I think the govt. couldn't prove the sale was illegal, but she lied about how the transaction was done or tried to get someone else to lie about it.

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