Originally posted by: Aquaman
From Wiki
Beginning in 2002, Stewart's career was shaken by charges brought against her regarding the sale of her shares in pharmaceutical company ImClone, days before its application for a new drug was denied. Stewart's reputation suffered heavily during the course of events that occurred over the next 3 years, which included a significant drop in advertising in Living and to a lesser extent Weddings and Kids. Stewart went to trial and was convicted in March, 2004 on four counts of lying to investigators and obstruction of justice. She was forced to step down from her role as CEO and chairwoman of MSLO for a non-executive role. She also resigned her position as a board member for Revlon and the New York Stock Exchange.
Stewart surprised many in September 2004, when she agreed to begin serving a five-month prison term while her appeal was still pending. In October, she reported to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. She was released on March 4, 2005, after which she was placed under supervised release and required to wear an ankle bracelet for an additional 5 months.
According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations, Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone stock. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.[3]
Stewart is a former stockbroker who rose to President of the NYSE Board of Governors. Given this extensive background in trading and rules oversight, Stewart was viewed as actively being complicit in the insider trading charges. As a side note, if she had held her ImClone shares, she would have eventually made a significant profit.
The last of her legal battles were resolved when, on August 7, 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had agreed to settle insider trading charges against Stewart and Peter Bacanovic relating to Stewart's sale of ImClone Systems stock in December 2001. Under the settlement, Stewart - without admitting guilt - agreed to the maximum penalty of about $195,000, or three times the losses she avoided. Stewart also agreed to a five-year bar from serving as a director of a public company and a five-year limitation on the scope of her service as an officer or employee of a public company.[4] Stewart will be prohibited from participating in financial reporting, financial disclosure, internal controls, audits, SEC filings and monitoring compliance with the federal securities laws.
It is expected that after the bar is lifted, presumably in 2011, that Stewart (who will be 70), will return to the helm of MSO as its Chairwoman and CEO.
Cheers,
Aquaman
