A Chronology of Imclone and Martha Stewart
Thursday, July 8, 2004; 1:43 PM
Martha Stewart lost her bid to have the government drop a securities fraud charge for publicly declaring her innocence to allegedly prop up the stock price of her own company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Stewart's trial began in mid-January
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2004
July 8, 2004: A federal judge refuses to grant Martha Stewart a new trial, paving the way for her to be sentenced for lying about a stock sale.
March 5, 2004: Martha Stewart is found guilty on all four counts she faced of conspiracy, obstruction and lying to federal investigators about her sale of ImClone stock. Stewart's broker, Peter E. Bacanovic, was found guilty of the same charges and a count of perjury for lying under oath to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bacanovic was acquitted on a charge of making false documents.
Jan. 20, 2004: Martha Stewart pleads not guilty to a new indictment just minutes before jury selection begins.
Jan. 6, 2004: Potential jurors for Martha Stewart's criminal trial fill out questionnaires.
2003
Nov. 19, 2003: A judge denies Stewart's bid to drop the securities fraud charge, the most serious charge that Stewart faces.
Oct. 11, 2003: The Securities and Exchange Commission files civil insider-trading charges against Jack Waksal, the father of incarcerated ImClone founder Samuel Waksal, in connection with stock trades dating back to December 2001.
July 21, 2003: Lawyers for Martha Stewart asked a federal judge to order a government investigation of the lawyers, regulators and agents who had advance notice of her indictment, complaining that secret grand jury information had been leaked.
June 19, 2003: Harlan W. Waksal, the co-founder of ImClone Systems Inc., quit as chief scientific officer and stepped down from the ImClone's board.
June 19, 2003: A federal judge Thursday set a Jan, 12 trial date for Martha Stewart and U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum also set a Nov. 18 date for lawyers to make oral arguments on their pretrial motions.
June 10, 2003: Sam Waksal, founder of ImClone, is sentenced to seven years and three months in prison and will have to pay over $4 million in fines and back taxes.
June 5, 2003: Martha Stewart and her former broker are indicted on nine counts of criminal charges for allegedly conspiring to obstruct a probe into her personal stock sales by lying to investigators and altering a key document to support their story. Stewart stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (Read Article)
April 30, 2003: Robert F. Goldhammer, chairman of the board, and Harlan W. Waksal, president and chief executive, resign as the company scrambled to deal with a recent debacle involving taxes.
April 1, 2003: ImClone announces that it will be forced to delay filing its annual report while it seeks to get to the bottom of a new tax problem that could ultimately cost as much as $60 million.
March 11, 2003: ImClone founder Samuel D. Waksal agrees to pay $800,000 and never again serve on the board of a public company to partially settle civil insider-trading charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
March 3, 2003: Samuel D. Waksal, founder of ImClone, enters a guilty plea to conspiracy and wire fraud for plotting with a Manhattan gallery owner to avoid paying $1.2 million in sales tax on nine paintings he bought for $15 million.
2002
Nov. 1, 2002: Stewart's media company reports 42 percent drop in third-quarter profits compared to the same period in the year prior.
Oct. 22, 2002: Securities and Exchange Commission investigators inform Martha Stewart that they intend to pursue securities-fraud charges against her in connection with her sale late last year of ImClone shares.
Oct. 15, 2002: Samuel Waksal, founder and former chief executive of ImClone Systems, pleaded guilty to six criminal charges of securities fraud, perjury, bank fraud and obstruction of justice.
Oct. 3, 2002: Douglas Faneuil, assistant to the Merrill broker who handled Stewart's account, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges that he accepted payments to withhold information about why Martha Stewart suddenly sold ImClone Systems stock.
Sept. 14, 2002: Samuel and Harlan Waksal, the two brothers who ran ImClone Systems, ordered shredders for the company's executive offices the day before the Securities and Exchange Commission requested corporate records in January, according to documents turned over to a congressional panel.
Sept. 11, 2002: A House panel asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Martha Stewart lied to Congress.
Sept. 6, 2002: Congressional investigators said that they have evidence of a five-minute phone call from Martha Stewart to ImClone Systems founder and former chief executive Samuel Waksal on Dec. 31, during a period when Waksal has maintained the two did not speak.
Aug. 20, 2002: Congressional investigators demand ImClone Systems turn over new records and certify that it is not withholding important facts about its controversial cancer drug, Erbitux.
Aug. 15, 2002: ImClone Systems announces that it has filed suit against Samuel Waksal, claiming that he improperly ordered the destruction of documents, and is also demanding the return of $7 million in severance pay granted to Waksal.
Aug. 13, 2002: Waksal pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of securities and bank fraud.
Aug. 8, 2002: A federal grand jury indicts Waksal on 13 counts of securities fraud, bank fraud, perjury, obstruction of justice and other charges after talks toward a possible plea agreement broke down.
June 25, 2002: The e-mail message that set off a chain of sales of ImClone Systems stock and eventually led to the arrest of its former chief executive explicitly said the company's cancer drug, Erbitux, was about to be rejected by the Food and Drug Administration.
June 22, 2002: Merrill Lynch places Martha Stewart's stockbroker Peter Bacanovic and his assistant on administrative leave.
Jun2 20, 2002: ImClone discloses that it had received formal notice of SEC civil action.
June 15, 2002: A House panel investigating stock sales at ImClone Systems says it will seek clarification of testimony given by Lily Lee, ImClone's vice president of regulatory affairs, because it bears on whether ImClone's chief executive had inside information when he made $44 million selling the biotechnology firm's stock.
June 14, 2002: Samuel Waksal declines to testify before a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
June 13, 2002: Samuel Waksal is arrested on a criminal complaint that alleges he told family members to sell the biotechnology company's stock, just before a negative government report on ImClone's main product, an experimental cancer drug.
June 5, 2002: A congressional panel subpoenas Waksal after he declines to testify at a hearing scheduled
March 22, 2002: Congressional investigators begin probe on Imclone stock trades made by company insiders.
Feb. 28, 2002: Shares of ImClone Systems jump 32 percent after the company announces it has come up with a new strategy that could win approval for its product from the Food and Drug Administration.
Feb. 22, 2002: A House committee investigating ImClone requests documents from drug and biotech companies that had discussed potential partnerships with ImClone.
Jan. 20, 2002: Shares of ImClone Systems falls 30 percent amid news that it would be the subject of a congressional inquiry.
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