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American Morning
Interview With Wayne Carlin
Aired June 05, 2003 - 09:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: How strong is the case against Martha Stewart? A federal grand jury yesterday charged Stewart with making false statements, obstruction of justice, securities fraud and conspiracy. She pleaded not guilty to all those charges.
Wayne Carlin is regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission and he is joining us here today.
Good morning.
Thanks for being with us.
WAYNE CARLIN, SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: Good morning.
KAGAN: You are leading this prosecution for the SEC against Martha Stewart.
CARLIN: That's correct.
KAGAN: And how is the SEC case different than the other criminal and civil charges that she faces?
CARLIN: The SEC case is an insider trading case, plain and simple. The obstruction charges are on the criminal side, but they're not part of the SEC's case.
KAGAN: And how is -- is this not more about the cover-up being worse than the crime, the alleged crime, we should say?
CARLIN: Certainly the insider trading case is aggravated by the conduct, the obstruction that occurred after the trading.
KAGAN: I don't know if you've been able to see some of the viewer e-mail we've been getting in, but there certainly is a segment of the public out there that feels like you are picking on Martha Stewart, that this is a powerful woman, that this is a celebrity and this is someone who hasn't done nearly anything as egregious as some of the other big business tycoons that we've seen out there recently.
CARLIN: They couldn't be more wrong. But what people probably don't understand is the full context of what the SEC does in insider trading enforcement.
KAGAN: Well, then give us a little education then this morning.
CARLIN: We bring dozens of insider trading cases every year, year in and year out. We bring them against people in prominent positions and we bring them against people in very humble positions. It covers a wide range, large cases involving millions of dollars, smaller cases involving less than what was at stake here. And the best illustration I can give you is in my office in New York, this is actually the third insider trading case we've brought in the last two weeks.
Two weeks ago we brought a case against a man who was a vice president at a company called Hot Jobs. He made $10,000 from his insider trading. We brought a case against him. Last week we brought a case against four people who were involved in stealing advanced copies of "Business Week" magazine and trading on that. The four defendants were a janitor, a machinist, a real estate agent and a photo shop technician. And they, their profits ranged from a million dollars at the high end. Two of them only made $8,800.
If we're going to bring those cases, and we do at the SEC, there would be something very, very wrong for us to give a pass to Martha Stewart. She didn't get any advantages from -- any disadvantages from being a prominent person. She shouldn't get any advantages from that either.
KAGAN: In the time we have left, I need to get her lawyer's statement up on the screen and have you comment on that. Her lawyer makes this comment: "We ask the public to withhold judgment until the government's unfounded charges are publicly aired and refuted. When this happens, we are convinced that justice will follow and Martha Stewart will be fully exonerated."
Obviously, you would have a different take on that, otherwise you wouldn't be taking the action that you are. You're also looking for Martha Stewart to limit her role within her company.
Is stepping down as chairman and CEO enough or are you looking for her to get completely out of her company?
CARLIN: We are not looking to have her completely removed from the company and we would need to know a lot more information about what her new role is to reach a determination.
KAGAN: All right, we will be tracking it.
Wayne Carlin, regional director for the SEC, thanks for joining us this morning.
CARLIN: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 5, 2003 - 09:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: How strong is the case against Martha Stewart? A federal grand jury yesterday charged Stewart with making false statements, obstruction of justice, securities fraud and conspiracy. She pleaded not guilty to all those charges.
Wayne Carlin is regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission and he is joining us here today.
Good morning.
Thanks for being with us.
WAYNE CARLIN, SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: Good morning.
KAGAN: You are leading this prosecution for the SEC against Martha Stewart.
CARLIN: That's correct.
KAGAN: And how is the SEC case different than the other criminal and civil charges that she faces?
CARLIN: The SEC case is an insider trading case, plain and simple. The obstruction charges are on the criminal side, but they're not part of the SEC's case.
KAGAN: And how is -- is this not more about the cover-up being worse than the crime, the alleged crime, we should say?
CARLIN: Certainly the insider trading case is aggravated by the conduct, the obstruction that occurred after the trading.
KAGAN: I don't know if you've been able to see some of the viewer e-mail we've been getting in, but there certainly is a segment of the public out there that feels like you are picking on Martha Stewart, that this is a powerful woman, that this is a celebrity and this is someone who hasn't done nearly anything as egregious as some of the other big business tycoons that we've seen out there recently.
CARLIN: They couldn't be more wrong. But what people probably don't understand is the full context of what the SEC does in insider trading enforcement.
KAGAN: Well, then give us a little education then this morning.
CARLIN: We bring dozens of insider trading cases every year, year in and year out. We bring them against people in prominent positions and we bring them against people in very humble positions. It covers a wide range, large cases involving millions of dollars, smaller cases involving less than what was at stake here. And the best illustration I can give you is in my office in New York, this is actually the third insider trading case we've brought in the last two weeks.
Two weeks ago we brought a case against a man who was a vice president at a company called Hot Jobs. He made $10,000 from his insider trading. We brought a case against him. Last week we brought a case against four people who were involved in stealing advanced copies of "Business Week" magazine and trading on that. The four defendants were a janitor, a machinist, a real estate agent and a photo shop technician. And they, their profits ranged from a million dollars at the high end. Two of them only made $8,800.
If we're going to bring those cases, and we do at the SEC, there would be something very, very wrong for us to give a pass to Martha Stewart. She didn't get any advantages from -- any disadvantages from being a prominent person. She shouldn't get any advantages from that either.
KAGAN: In the time we have left, I need to get her lawyer's statement up on the screen and have you comment on that. Her lawyer makes this comment: "We ask the public to withhold judgment until the government's unfounded charges are publicly aired and refuted. When this happens, we are convinced that justice will follow and Martha Stewart will be fully exonerated."
Obviously, you would have a different take on that, otherwise you wouldn't be taking the action that you are. You're also looking for Martha Stewart to limit her role within her company.
Is stepping down as chairman and CEO enough or are you looking for her to get completely out of her company?
CARLIN: We are not looking to have her completely removed from the company and we would need to know a lot more information about what her new role is to reach a determination.
KAGAN: All right, we will be tracking it.
Wayne Carlin, regional director for the SEC, thanks for joining us this morning.
CARLIN: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
