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On October 10, Netflix dropped the trailer for the new documentary about Martha Stewart. The film, titled Martha, will pull the curtains back on the television personality's life from a model to the first self-made female billionaire in the US. The documentary will also revisit Stewart's illegal insider trading scandal. In 2004, she was incarcerated for five months for the same scandal as per People magazine.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission's press release dated June 4, 2003, Martha Stewart's legal troubles began after she sold her shares in biopharmaceutical company ImClone Systems in December 2001.
In the lawsuit filed in 2003, the SEC argued that she and her stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, sold her shares after receiving insider information that the company CEO was going to sell all his shares soon, which would cause the stock value to plummet.
People Magazine reported that the CEO sold his shares shortly after Stewart sold hers. Stewart's move reportedly resulted in the businesswoman gaining a $51,000 profit, as opposed to the $45,000 loss she would have faced had she waited to sell her shares.
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In 2004, Stewart was found guilty of "conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators." On October 8, 2004, Stewart started her sentence at a West Virginia correctional facility. She was released in March 2005.
Martha Stewart's prison sentence was followed by five months of house arrest and two years of probation
Martha Stewart was found guilty after a six-week trial in early 2004. She was sentenced to five months in prison, another five months of home detention and a two-year probation.
Over the years, she revealed how she spent her time at the camp. On October 18, 2004, Stewart updated her followers about her life in prison on her website, writing:
“The camp is fine; it is pretty much what I anticipated. The best news – everyone is nice – both the officials and my fellow inmates. I have adjusted and am very busy. The camp is like an old-fashioned college campus – without the freedom, of course.”
In a November 2020 interview with People Magazine, she added she picked up several hobbies while in prison, including ceramics and crocheting.
In her 2024 CNN docuseries The Many Lives of Martha Stewart, Meg Phipps, a fellow inmate, mentioned that Stewart started smuggling food from the kitchens to bake for them. She said that the inmates had a potluck on the last day of Stewart's sentence and she brought a caramel flan.
In another interview, Stewart revealed that her time at the facility had its ups and downs. Speaking on Couric's self-titled podcast in October 2017, she called her incarceration period "horrifying." She added:
“It was horrifying and no one, no one, should have to go through that kind of indignity really except for murderers, and there are a few other categories, but no one should have to go through that. It’s a very, very awful thing. There are lots and lots of disturbing things that go on in an incarceration like that.”
Martha Stewart bounced back from her legal troubles. Following her release, she served her home detention and probation period. During her probation, she returned to television and started her award-winning talk show titled The Martha Stewart Show in September 2005.
The highs and lows of Martha Stewart's life will be explored in the Netflix documentary Martha, slated for release on October 30, 2024.
