NEW YORK — Martha Stewart estimates that the federal investigation into her ImClone Systems stock trade has cost her about $400 million, according to an interview with the New Yorker magazine, which reaches newsstands today.
Stewart told New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin that the losses have been mostly in the decline of her more than 30 million shares in her multimedia company, but also in legal fees and lost business opportunities.
Stewart is chairwoman and chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. Its shares closed Friday at $9.29 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have traded as high as $20.93 in the last year.
It was her first lengthy media interview on the subject since news broke in June that federal prosecutors were investigating Stewart's sale of ImClone shares.