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| Martha Stewart talks with ABCNews' Barbara
Walters (Pic courtesy: www.abcnews.go.com) |
In her only interview since being indicted for her
sale of ImClone stock, and before going to trial in January 2004,
Stewart tells Walters, "Who wouldn't be scared? Of course I'm
scared. The last place I would ever want to go is prison. And I don't
think I will be going to prison, though." However ABC News did
not make a transcript of Walters' interview but released only one
quote from her remarks.
Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic were charged in a nine-count
indictment returned by a federal grand jury. The Securities and
Exchange Commission also filed a civil securities fraud lawsuit
against the pair, accusing them of illegal insider trading.
The lifestyles maven had been under investigation for selling almost
4,000 shares of ImClone in December 2001, shortly before the Food
and Drug Administration rejected the company's application for approval
of a colon cancer drug. The FDA rejection sent ImClone's stock plummeting.
Criminal charges against Stewart include making false statements,
and obstruction of justice. Charges against Bacanovic include perjury
and obstruction, according to a statement from the US attorney's
office in Manhattan. Stewart has not been charged with perjury.
Martha Stewart and her former stockbroker pleaded not guilty on
4 June 2003, to the charges stemming from her sale of the stock.
Stewart stepped down as CEO of her company, Martha Stewart Living
Omnimedia Inc., which publishes her magazine and a line of home
products for the Kmart retail chain, in June, but remains on the
board.
The Stewart segment is touted as the first broadcast TV interview
she has granted since her June indictment on obstruction of justice
charges and the only one she plans to give before she goes on trial
in January. She has denied any wrongdoing.
Stewart is a close friend of former ImClone chief executive Sam
Waksal, who was sentenced in June to 87 months in prison for tax
evasion and his role in the insider trading case.
Last month, ABC scored another journalistic coup by landing the
first prime-time network interview with Jessica Lynch, the former
Army private who was taken prisoner, badly wounded and later rescued
during the US war in Iraq. That interview, with Diane Sawyer, is
slated to air on 11 November.
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