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Martha Stewart Case Report
The reaction of the US attorneys and the Securities and Exchange Commission
US attorneys and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wanted to indict Martha Stewart of more harsh crimes, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, making false statements. Stewart and Bacanovic were charged with trying to conceal evidence about the fact that he had provided her with nonpublic information about ImClone Company.
They were also accused of lying to the government attorneys who questioned them and trying to hamper the investigation about the case. But Stewart was also charge with securities fraud, which is a far more serious crime. They claimed that she'd made a series of false statements about her innocence that misled investigators and as a result her company's net worth held up instead of declining as it should have.
While it is definitely true that Stewart did commit insider trading, lied to her investigators and tried to conceal evidence about the case, the last charge made by the US attorneys and the SEC was very flawed. Whether conscious or unconscious motives of some kind motivated them to file for that felony and charge her with it, it was very misguided to do so.
She did in fact did all the previously stated crimes, but as far as pleading her innocence to maintain her company's worth- that is just overreaching and exaggerated. After all, she had to state her innocent to try and defend herself in the face of the court trial.
Her motivation and reason for doing that was simply to try and protect herself and plead her innocence. It is unreasonable to think that when she was faced with possible imprisonment and heavy fines, what she was thinking of was keeping her company afloat, much less seeing as how this would be another felony which would make her even guiltier and put her future in greater risk.
This was also established during the trial and a statement was made that said that she couldn't defend herself without pleading her innocence, and that her motive was simply to do so. She did not think about anything other than that.
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