Sale of ImClone Shares Proper, Stewart Says

Home design diva Martha Stewart insisted again Tuesday that inside information played no role in her sale of shares in biotech firm ImClone Systems Inc. in December. Stewart, head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., said in a statement that she spoke earlier this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney’s office about the trade, and has cooperated with a House subcommittee that is probing ImClone.

She described her Dec. 27 sale of nearly 4,000 ImClone shares as “entirely proper and lawful” and said it was based on information available to the public that day. The stock collapsed this year after the government denied the firm’s application for a new drug.