Punish Martha, but not... 3/9/2004 SO, MARTHA STEWART has been found guilty and most likely will go to jail (Page A1, March 6). She sold $228,000 worth of ImClone stock before the price plummeted based on insider information and was convicted on obstruction charges. But what I would like to know is, why are the rules not the same for everyone? In 1990 George W. Bush dumped $848,000 worth of Harken Energy Corp. stock before the price plummeted. Bush, as a Harken board member and a member of the well-informed Harken Audit Committee, surely had insider information about the oil company's financial woes. If Bush didn't think his sale would be considered suspicious, why did he wait eight months to notify the SEC about the trade and then uncharacteristically leave the notification undated? He said the timing of his sale of stock before the price plummeted was purely "coincidental." Lucky for Bush, his father was president at the time, the head of the SEC was his father's appointee and former vice presidential counsel, and the SEC's general counsel was Bush's personal lawyer in his sale of the Texas Rangers. Why is it that Bush seemed to get away with something much worse than Martha Stewart's crime? KIM HARRINGTON Abington © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed...ticles/2004/03/09/punish_martha_but_not_bush/
Do you know what the statute of limitations is on that charge. good post. Some sob sent me a 8x11 print of that bastard yesterday. I will keep it forever, enshrined on the bottom lid of my toilet seat.
Bush got away with it. Yes. Why? Smarter in what he said and did ie no stupid cover up, like Martha. This insider selling done all the time. Martha just used poor judgement and got shotty legal advice when talking to the feds. mktman
Its amazing how people see things the way they want based on preconceived notions or ideas. Martha Stewart was convicted on the cover up. She was not convicted on insider trading. Commit this to memory!!!! People with power and money all use insider information. The key is, how you handle it when you get sniffed out. Martha" timing was bad. She got lumped into the corporate scandal whirlpool. She got flushed. Timing is everything
Which is a the lesser evil to make money? "What's up with John F. Kerry, Senator from Massachusette, Democrat (who does not believe in democracy), Socialist, Traitor, Liar, and the guy who left his wife and kids for a very wealthy widow; Teresa Heinz (worth over $ 650,000,000).............." http://www.nicedoggie.net/archives/001112.html
<IMG SRC=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=448528> http://faculty.som.yale.edu/~ab364/it.pdf
That's why Milton Friedman is against Insider's law : because it encourages Monopoly of the Big Insiders or the Untouchable notably some politicians who are above the law.