Martha Stewart sentence

Shizelbs

Martha got 5 months today. What a joke! Is this the strong message they are sending to other white collar criminals. Lame!

edit: also a $30k fine and 5 more months of house confinement. HEY JUDGE! Have you seen her house(s)?! Yeah, I would like a bit of that 'punishment.' Have her sentenced to cleaning my messy-assed house for 5 months. That would learn her!

PolkWannabie

What's lame in this case was the governments bothering to spend the time and effort for a $40k stock transaction for someone worth $40mm while abuses that have run rampant in the mutual fund industry including price fixing and trading after hours that have affected millions which have been met with only fines and requests not to do that again.

Jstas

She will not serve one second of jail time. She was given a suspension on her jail sentence until her appeal is complete. God knows her lawyer is either gonna argue his little heart out until he gets th1 decision overturned or just appeal the living hell out of it and suck the judicial system dry and tie up time and resources.

All because Martha got freaked, acted on insider info and pulled all her money just to save her butt. Meanwhile she screws over every other investor in the pot there because her massive sellout devalues the stock drastically over night. Then she can't figure out why it's such a big deal. She walks away with something like 14.7 million while the rest of the investors lose something like 3 times that while waiting for the stock to recover from her actions.

She robbed the other investors blind.

faster100

Not to start anything, But so if you had a "friend" inside and warned you, you could either make 14 million (or what ever) and pull out or lose it all and stay in, what would you do?

On the other hand, she did break the law.... she should be punished... But hard time? NO i don't think so.... Alot of people do hard time when they shouldnt, lets keep the prisons open for rapist, child molester's , murderers and drug dealers....

Ok im done with my small rant...

PhantomOG

I don't think that's the accurate question to be asking.

She wasn't charged with insider trading, she was charged with lying to government investigators regarding the sale. If she had just told the truth from the beginning who knows what would have happened. I think she was just too damn proud to admit to what she had done and I'm glad to see her punished. As with almost any crime, you could always find some other greater crime and compare them and try to belittle the smaller one committed. It doesn't make it less of a crime though.

I-SIG

Originally posted by PhantomOG
I don't think that's the accurate question to be asking.

She wasn't charged with insider trading, she was charged with lying to government investigators regarding the sale. If she had just told the truth from the beginning who knows what would have happened. I think she was just too damn proud to admit to what she had done and I'm glad to see her punished. As with almost any crime, you could always find some other greater crime and compare them and try to belittle the smaller one committed. It doesn't make it less of a crime though.

Actually, I think she was charged with insider trading and related stuff but only convicted of lying to the investigators. Big difference.

Wes

PhantomOG

wrong

She was found guilty on ALL counts she faced in her *obstruction of justice* trial.

I don't know what would have happened in the courts, but *personally* know how I feel. If she had come clean during the investigation and told them she received insider information from her stock broker and sold stock based on that information, I would be all for letting her off the hook completely and charging just the stock broker. But she didn't. She lied. Plain and simple.

PhantomOG

.

faster100

This could and most likely will get heated, But when you know you could do 15-20 years hard time... Not many people will admit fault. Im an honest person i feel.. But if i thought i needed to pull out of a deal because of major loss and then chanced pulling 20 years, I think its being scared and human nature to not admit something like that..

By the way, I'm not belittleing the crime,(mentioning worse crimes) I simply said she "should" be punished but she "shouldn't" do hard time.. IMO

Because if it were me and you, we would be doing a 25 year stint in the federal pen for sure. hey hats off if she's smart and sucessful and can get 5 months... instead of years... But shame on her for being dishonest

Shizelbs

What do you suggest her alternative be?

Jstas

Heh, hard time for a white collar crime? UNPOSSIBLE!

Minimum security prisons for people like Martha who do the crimes like she did are nothing more than a government sponsored vacation resort. Hard time is not a word or phrase used to describe them in the least.

faster100

lock down is lock down, I know i don't want to be locked in a prison much less a resort for 15-20...... But what ever.. just stateing my opinions is all

faster100

Originally posted by Shizelbs
What do you suggest her alternative be?

fines and probation.... alot longer then what she will get however.. just not years.

don't get me wrong, I'm not a martha chaser, But some people don't need to do time... she's 62

Jstas

I hope when I'm 62 I can commit crimes and get away with it!

PhantomOG

Originally posted by faster100
This could and most likely will get heated, But when you know you could do 15-20 years hard time... Not many people will admit fault. Im an honest person i feel.. But if i thought i needed to pull out of a deal because of major loss and then chanced pulling 20 years, I think its being scared and human nature to not admit something like that..

i guess i just don't sympathize with her situation as much as you do. i'm nowhere near what i consider to be wealthy and therefor would never put large amounts of my money in something as volatile as the stock market. but if for some reason my financial welfare was directly tied to some stock, i could understand a strong desire to sell even though it is against the law.

but let's face it, none of us here have nearly as much money as Martha Stewart does. the amount of money she "saved" by selling off this stock is a drop in the bucket for her. so i just don't buy the fact that she had compelling financial reason to act on the insider information. from evidence shown during the trial, it was clear she knew she was breaking the law, so i can't even give her a break that she didn't know what she was getting into.

PolkWannabie

Her financial welfare was hardly tied to this stock ... She had less than 4000 shares of a stock that at the time was selling for $80 a share and is now around $60.

I am not belittling what she did, I just think the justice departments resources could be better spent elsewhere ... If you've followed what's been going on in the mutual fund world you'll see managers of funds that have traded their own funds in their personal accounts outside of normal hours with the use of information like this for their own financial gain thereby causing swings affecting millions of investors adversely in the process. They've also looked the other way for some large investors who were allowed to trade outside the rules as laid out in the funds prospectus etc. in return for large investments by these types in other areas that the mutual fund company oversees etc. and when discovered after years of doing this in return most received mild slaps on the wrist and no jail time at all. I'm no Martha Stewart fan but there would appear to be at least some inequity of fitting the penalty to the crime.

Shizelbs

Originally posted by faster100
fines and probation.... alot longer then what she will get however.. just not years.

don't get me wrong, I'm not a martha chaser, But some people don't need to do time... she's 62

Right, she's 62, not old and feeble. The laws apply to all citizens, regardless of age, unless you are under 18. We sentence people to life terms. At some point in that life term, those sentenced will be 62. Do we let them out then?

And $30k fine? I realize that punishment must be fair and proportional to the crime, but she won't even notice that. $30k may be a big deal to me, but to her, its nothing. How is the threat of pocket change going to deter others in similar situations?

And the house arrest is total crap. She has a house(s) I can barely dream of having. I am sure that will afford her lots of time to day-trade too!

danger boy

Her "sentence" was a slap on the wrist nothing more than that.

5 months in a minimum security prison is very easy stay. she'll write a book about her horrible stay there.. and make millions more $$

$33,000 fine. WTF?????

she makes more than that in an hour. they should have gone after her Martha empire... hit her in the pocketbook where it hurts. What an insult.. white collar criminals really do get off easy huh?

PolkWannabie

Actually we do ... Most doing life terms don't do anything near 50 years ...

Should we fine people based on the crime ? or based on their ability to pay ?

PhantomOG

Originally posted by PolkWannabie
I am not belittling what she did, I just think the justice departments resources could be better spent elsewhere ...

at what point is the fish big enough? who decides that? if the crime isn't worth punishing EVERY case against it, why should it be a crime? how can punishment for a crime be considered a deterrent if people know that "small" offences won't be prosecuted?

yes there are bigger fish to fry, but letting little the little ones go free is only going to make matters worse.

Early B.

I'm sure there's a lot more to the Martha Stewart story than what's being portrayed in the media. Hell, there always is.

I believe she pissed off the wrong person and she's being publically humiliated as a result. Let's face it, lots of rich people get richer by acquiring inside information. No big deal. That's just how the game is played.

Should she do jail time? No. I'd rather the government fine her heavily and make her do charity work. Why? Because I can't imagine how many millions of our tax dollars have been wasted by trying her in court, and it ain't over yet.

faster100

come on guys, Its friday... its all opinions..... Lets not let this go to far.....

Have a great weekend!! Im off for a visit with the In-laws....

later

Have Fun!!

PolkWannabie

Originally posted by PhantomOG
at what point is the fish big enough? who decides that? if the crime isn't worth punishing EVERY case against it, why should it be a crime? how can punishment for a crime be considered a deterrent if people know that "small" offences won't be prosecuted?

yes there are bigger fish to fry, but letting little the little ones go free is only going to make matters worse.

I didn't say the fish wasn't big enough ... what I stated or implied was that the punishment ought to fit the crime ... Martha made a personal trade based on insider info and in essence saves a $40k loss for which she gets 5 months of jail time and a fine more or less in the same neighborhood of what she would have lost ... That may well be fair or not depending on your point of view ...

However I think it is either over done or the lack of punishment others have gotten for being a lot farther over the line and having a much further reaching effect on lots of other investors is way under done ... I'm more inclined to feel the cases fitting the latter scenarios are way under done ...

F1nut

This is my fair sentence. $14.7 million fine to be given to a worthy charity. One year in jail and banned from dealing with stocks again. Eff her, I've got no sympathy.

shack

I personally think you have an over-zealous prosecutor, with a case that had very little merit and a jury that wanted to show how "fair" they were by convicting the rich folks. I think there is a good chance that it could be overturned on appeal. The judge's sentence is a good indication of how strong she thinks the verdict is. It was a total waste of the taxpayers money.

exalted512

Originally posted by F1nut
This is my fair sentence. $14.7 million fine to be given to a worthy charity. One year in jail and banned from dealing with stocks again. Eff her, I've got no sympathy.

agreed...cept 6 months in prison and pay back everyone that held stock for what they lost
-Cody

Loud & Clear

Stewart gets five months of jail for some slippery slope financial tomfoolery, and then Jayson Williams get no time for murder. Big ups to 'the system,' kids.