From a wildly successful businesswoman to calling a prison cell home, Martha Stewart has certainly had an interesting couple of years. She began her career about 30 years ago with a restaurant business and has since grown to become CEO and President of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Her success also includes publishing her own Everyday Living magazine, serving as the business spokesperson for K-Mart and its popular television show, From Martha's Kitchen. She had built a reputation as a public figure with practical advice on kitchen creations and gardening. Despite these accomplishments, Stewart managed to get caught up in some insider trading schemes that damaged not only parts of her career, but also her public image. Insider trading is the act of buying or selling securities based on material, non-public information. Information is considered material if a reasonable person would use it in a way that would persuade you to participate in a securities exchange, or if it would be reasonable to believe that it would influence the market price of a security once the information was disclosed. become public (Carlin 2003). Information can only be acted upon once it has been made public, otherwise unfair dealings would occur which could adversely affect the general public and the company's shareholders. Those who are employees of the company through employment have a signed agreement that puts the interests of shareholders first. Acting on suggestions from within the company or from other sources could adversely affect the company's success, resulting in losses for shareholders. Martha Stewart was involved in an insider trading scandal in December 2001. Suspicions arose... middle of paper ...... of her own. Housewife, Martha Stewart, committed an illegal act of insider trading that earned her a new home in prison. Works Cited Caillavet, Cynthia A. (2004). From Nike v. Kasky to Martha Stewart: First Amendment protection for corporate speakers' denials of public criminal charges. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 94(4), 1033-1067. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=15385502&site=ehost-liveSecurities and Exchange Commission, Litigation. (2003). Complaint: Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic. Retrieved December 11, 2006, from http://sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp18169.htmShaw, Nancy (2003). Martha Stewart deals with insider trading. Social text, 21(4), 51-67. Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=12173672&site=ehost-live