Martha Stewart wound up being prosecuted for "obstruction of justice" and "conspiracy", the go-to offenses when prosecutions otherwise hit a wall.
Stewart's prosecution came at time when insider trading appeared common and when regulators were looking for a visible victory. A celebrity prosecution gets a lot of press without actually angering people with real power. Stewart was a mere millionaire, not a multimillionaire or billionaire.
Edit: Well, I stand corrected, she was a multimillionaire at the time. Still it's hard not to see her as relatively small potatoes in the world of stocks.
Martha Stewart wound up being prosecuted for "obstruction of justice" and "conspiracy", the go-to offenses when prosecutions otherwise hit a wall.
Stewart's prosecution came at time when insider trading appeared common and when regulators were looking for a visible victory. A celebrity prosecution gets a lot of press without actually angering people with real power. Stewart was a mere millionaire, not a multimillionaire or billionaire.
Edit: Well, I stand corrected, she was a multimillionaire at the time. Still it's hard not to see her as relatively small potatoes in the world of stocks.
https://www.thoughtco.com/martha-stewarts-insider-trading-ca...