New York, NY, Jan. 27--Martha Stewart, in her first public comments in months about the probe into the sale of her stake in ImClone Systems, told the New Yorker magazine she has no plans to leave her company.
In the current issue of the magazine, Stewart, who has denied any wrongdoing in the ImClone sale, said in an interview that the response to her plight has been confusing.
"I mean, we've produced a lot of good stuff for a lot of good people," the founder, chief executive and chairman of Martha Stewart Omnimedia told the magazine. "And to be maligned for that is kind of weird."
Under the terms of an agreement with her advisers, the New Yorker said, "Stewart would discuss her feelings about the investigation, and the public reaction, but wouldn't speak on the record about the facts."
Stewart's only public discussion of the insider trading probe came during an appearance on CBS's "Early Show" in June.
Stewart sold her shares of ImClone a day before ImClone received a damaging ruling on an experimental cancer drug from U.S. regulators. She faces possible civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department related to the ImClone sale.
In the article, Stewart estimated that the investigation has cost her about $400 million, mostly from the decline in value of her more than 30 million shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but also in legal fees and lost business opportunities.
Stewart said she is focusing on making her company grow, launching a line of furniture and a digest size magazine that are part of a long range plan to give the company an identity beyond her own image, according to the magazine.
