Martha Stewart

Martha Helen Stewart (English: Martha Helen Stewart, August 3, 1941 -), formerly known as Kostyra, is an American wealthy businessman, famous columnist and television personality. Born in New Jersey to a Polish family. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which specializes in the home and hospitality industries, she has found success through a variety of business endeavors, including publishing, broadcasting, merchandising and e-commerce. She has written many best-selling books, is the publisher of Martha Living magazine, and hosted two syndicated television shows: Living with Martha, which aired from 1993 to 2004, and The Martha Stewart Show, which aired from 2005 to 2012. In 2002, Martha Stewart was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for selling shares in the biotechnology company ImClone, and was suspected of involving insider trading. After trial, the criminal jury in 2004 found Martha Stewart guilty of four counts, including obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements to federal investigators. She was sentenced to five months in a federal correctional facility, two years of supervised release (including five months of electronic monitoring), and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine. In the civil part, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement with Martha Stewart in 2006, which mainly involved her stock trading practices. Under the settlement, Martha Stewart agreed to refrain from serving as a director, chief executive officer, chief financial officer (or other officer role in which she was responsible for preparing, auditing or disclosing financial results) of any public company for five years. She also agreed to pay a $195,000 penalty, which represents the loss she avoided by selling her ImClone stock, plus interest of $58,062, plus an additional treble penalty (three times the loss) of $137,019. After being released from prison, Martha mainly devoted herself to directing and hosting the TV show "Martha Life" and publishing the magazine of the same name.