SEC and Other Investigations of Illegal Trading: Martha Stewart's Friend

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Congressional probe focuses on Stewart friend-report (IMCL, MSO, MER) By Allen Wan

The congressional probe into Martha Stewart's (MSO) sale of ImClone Systems (IMCL) is focusing on a friend of Stewart's, who dumped 10,000 shares of the biotech firm at around the same time she did, Time magazine reported, citing unidentified sources close to the investigation. Dr. Bart Pasternak, a Westport, Conn. vascular surgeon, sold 10,000 shares of Imclone on Dec. 27th or 28th -- about the same time Stewart sold around 4,000 shares, the report said. Pasternak's estranged wife, Mariana, was traveling with Stewart to Mexico on Dec. 27 -- the day Merrill Lynch (MER) broker Peter Bacanovic executed the sale of Stewart's shares. The probe is now focused on whether Mariana Pasternak had contact that day with her husband, the report said.

-- posted by Kirk