Martha Stewart found guilty on all four counts

[ChounsMan]

A jury found Martha Stewart guilty on all four counts against her in her obstruction of justice trial Friday. Her ex-broker Peter Bacanovic was found guilty on four of the five charges he faced. The jury deliberated for three days after a five-week trial before reaching its verdict. Sentencing set for June 17.

[Ghost]

Even the rich and powerful sometimes have to pay when they decide to break the law. I wish we saw results like this more often, and to people out there who have much more ill intent than Martha Stewart. She broke the law and now she will go to jail, just like the rest of us would, and at times like this it appears as if our judicial system might actually work the way it was intended. So nice to see those Enron suckers starting to pay for their crimes. Top dogs Skilling and (hopefully) Ken Lay are next and I believe that, for destroying so many people's lives for a mere buck, those two guys deserve to be locked up for the rest of their lives.

[cpayne5]

I think that that guy from the Adelphia scandal should be hanged. Because he stole money from the company and put them into bankruptcy, the company is too poor to bring cable internet service to my house. I will provide the noose.

[RedskinRat]

I'm with Cpayne on this, people that screw others over need to feel the full effect of the law, I'm not even sure what impact Martha's naughtiness had on me, if any.

Enron execs, scam artists and people who limit broadband access to Warpath members deserve to be hauled over a mile of broken glass and rolled in salt, then dealt with by the people they victimized.

[Ghost]

And Cowboys fans ...

[RedskinRat]

Hey Ghost, we'd use Cowboys fans fat asses to break the glass.

[Daseal]

From my understanding I don't see how Martha did ALL THAT MUCH wrong. She saw her friends who owned the company selling, her agent advised her to sell, and she did HOW AMAZING! But she tried to cover it up, Im guessing that was the biggest problem?

[Ghost]

It's called insider trading and it's illegal. If you sell stock based on information not available to the general public, you have broken the law. The law is supposed to protect your average everyday stockholder (i.e., you and me) from clowns at the top who would rip us off or let us take the fall. Martha got a tip from someone connected to the CEO of ImClone so she sold her stock before it plummeted. Average Americans lost lots of money but I guess Martha doesn't think the same rules should apply to her. Most of us don't have connections with CEOs but powerful people like Martha do, so we have to make sure they don't cheat. Interestingly enough, for some reason the judge threw out the insider trading charges against Martha. She actually was convicted for trying to cover the whole thing up ... charges like conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Yes there are worse corporate criminals than Martha but she deserves what she's getting. Plus she'll probably go to some cushy country club jail ... a far cry from where you or I would be sent if we were convicted of a felony.

[Daseal]

SO Martha should be locked up for following the advise of a well informed friend. What should she have done instead? Just let her money plummet away. She saw her friends selling and her broker told her to, that's all the convincing I'd need.

[Ghost]

If following the "advice of a well-informed friend" means you're acting on insider information, yes you have to let that money plummet away and sell it the next day at a loss, just like all the other shmucks in the world, the ones who aren't rich and powerful enough to have well-informed friends in all the right places.

[MTK]

I think Martha is definitely guilty, but I also think she is being used as an example because of her high profile status.

[Riggo44]

So So Sad!! I like poor Martha!!

[That Guy]

its odd that stealing a 2000$ car can get you what? 10-20, and stealing 20$ million is perfectly alright. Insider trading is a bit harder to judge, cause sometimes is hard to tell what you know and what you're only *supposed* to know, but in the case of enron et al, its much easier... and i'm glad NYSE's got a new head, and that some of the corporate crooks are getting judgement. I just hope that it brings the changes it needs to, because its all meaningless if the song remains the same...

[MTK]

There was a local town treasurer in my area that snagged thousands upon thousands of tax payers dollars over the past few years. His punishment? He's facing 21-27 MONTHS!! More than likely he'll get half that and get out early on top of that for good behavior, what a joke.

White collar crime, the crime that really does pay. Where's the risk? These bums know they won't face hard time so why not steal a crap load of money?

[That Guy]

sad but true.