Group 4 MARTHA STEWART Robert

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Group 4MARTHA STEWARTRobert Daniel Deji
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Martha Stewart,CEOLiving Omnimedia

• Martha Stewart Living is a magazine and a
  television show featuring entertaining and home
  decorating guru Martha Stewart. Both the magazine
  and the television program focus on the domestic
  arts. Martha Stewart Living began as a quarterly
  magazine, and is currently published monthly.
  Martha Stewart Living is also the flagship brand
  of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia media
  empire.
• Martha Stewart Living television debuted as a
  weekly half-hour syndicated show in September of
  1993. Intended to complement the magazine, it
  featured Stewart as the host. By the time it went
  on hiatus in autumn of 2004, it was a full hour
  being broadcast five days a week and on weekends.
  Martha replaced the show in 2005.
• Both the magazine and the television show have
  won numerous awards
• Martha sold her shares of ImClone when she heard
  about news that would decrease the values of
  those stocks through her broker who had heard
  about it via an inside official at ImClone

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Time Line Of Events

• December 26, 2001 ImClone founder Sam Waksal is
  tipped that the government will deny the
  company's Erbitux application, then tips his
  daughter to sell her ImClone stock and tries to
  sell his own. The call from Peter Bacanovic to
  Martha Stewart came in between 10 and 11 a.m. on
  Dec. 27 to Stewart's assistant who noted, "Peter
  Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start
  trading downward."Martha Stewart calls Peter
  Bacanovic's office later that day and according
  to prosecutors, she talks to Douglas Faneuil
• December 27, 2001 Stewart sells all 3,928 shares
  of ImClone stock she owns. The government later
  contends she was tipped that Waksal was trying to
  sell his shares. In 2002, the Securities and
  Exchange Commission announced that Martha Stewart
  was under investigation for insider trading. She
  had sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems in
  December 2001, just before the Food Drug
  Administration announced that it was scuttling
  ImClone's application to sell a new so-called
  wonder drug.
• March 5, 2004 Martha is put on house arrest.

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Turning Point Ethical Decision

• The bottom line is that insider trading is
  not wrong, actually, not if it doesnt involve
  failure to perform ones fiduciary duty or
  stealing information. If one learns of something
  from a friend or overhears a conversation or
  obtains the knowledge via a psychic, there is
  nothing wrong with making a profitable move that
  others hadnt had the chance to make. - Say, a
  single woman learns that a very eligible and
  desirable potential mate has turned up in her
  neighborhood. Before she makes a move to get
  acquainted she surely doesnt owe it to all the
  other single women in the region to report this
  fact. Quite the contrary, she should do her best
  to get to the potential mate before anyone else
  has learned of the situation.in the newspaper
  business a great deal hinges on scooping the
  competition. Indeed, reporters receive prizes for
  doing this, namely, jumping ahead of the crowd
  with information only they got a hold of so as to
  score! They and their editors should be
  especially keen on condemning federal insider
  trading laws by the logic of such laws,
  scooping would have to be prohibited.
• Insider trading laws aim to mimic rules of
  golf, baseball and football, all of which aim to
  even things out between competitors. But this
  isnt because it is unfair to have an advantage,
  not at all. Its because the fans wouldnt like a
  contest in which the same folks individuals or
  teams keep winning. So, to make things
  interesting, rules are introduced that will mix
  things up a bit.

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Virtue Ethics

• According to virtue ethics, Martha Stewart had
  enough courage to sell her stock, therefore it
  was ethical for her to sell her stocks.
• Virtue ethics emphasizes virtue or moral
  character,which include courage
  prudence,temperance,justice,honesty and trust.

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Divine Command Theory

• Divine command theory deals with believing in a
  deity who communicates what is right or wrong.
• Martha Stewart did not break any divine command
  theory and it was ethical for her to sell her
  stock.

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Deontologism

• Deontologism emphasizes the rules.It supports
  creating a good society by having people do
  good.People should be treated as end but not
  means.
• Martha Stewart treated other people as means and
  not ends to reach her goals of success. Therefore
  it was unethical for her to sell her stocks

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Utilitarianism

• Utilitarian seeks to maximize overall
  happiness.The ethical act is the one that
  creates the greatest good for the greatest
  number.
• Since other shareholders were not given the tip
  that the stock will sell below normal,
  utilitarian theory was broken since it did not
  produce the greatest happiness to shareholders.

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Natural Rights Theory

• Natural rights theory emphasizes negotiation and
  consensus agreement or entitlement to act without
  interference.
• When Stewart sold her stock, she broke the SEC
  rules and guidelines and therefore it was
  unethical for her to sell her stock after getting
  a tip that the stock will sale below normal
  price.

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References

• http//www.lewrockwell.com/machan/machan47.html
• http//www.usatoday.com/money/media/2004-03-05-ste
  wart-timeline_x.htms
• http//www.courttv.com/trials/stewart/chronology.h
  tml
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart_Living
  

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Questions ?