Martha Stewart shares tumble

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. tumbled more than 18 percent this morning, fueled by reports that the decorating maven may be facing a wider probe of her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. shares, including possible charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements.

Shares of the multimedia company fell $2.20, reaching $11.10 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen about 42 percent since news broke this month that Stewart's sale of stock in the biotech company was under scrutiny in an insider trading investigation.

At the heart of the matter now is whether Stewart, who is chairwoman and chief executive of her multimedia company and sits on the board of the NYSE, misled prosecutors in explaining why she sold almost 4,000 shares on Dec. 27. That was a day before the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would not consider Erbitux, ImClone's experimental cancer drug.

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