Lawyers for Westport’s Martha Stewart get their first chance today to cross-examine the government’s star witness against her in her Manhattan stock fraud trial.
Douglas Faneuil, the Merrill Lynch & Co. assistant who handled Stewart’s well-timed sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in December 2001, is expected to return to the witness stand for his fourth day of testimony.
Faneuil, 28, testified last week that he was ordered by Stewart’s broker, Peter Bacanovic, to tip her that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was selling his shares.
He also claimed Bacanovic, desperately trying to protect a lucrative career at Merrill, pressured him into initially lying to investigators. He changed his story in June 2002 and struck a plea deal with the government.
Stewart and Bacanovic are accused of repeatedly lying to the government about the circumstances of the sale. They claim they had a pre-existing deal to sell ImClone when it fell to $60.
