ImClone Investigators Probe Stewart E-mails

Aug. 9 -- A chain of phone messages and e-mails involving Martha Stewart and her broker may shed new light on what happened the day Stewart dumped her ImClone stock ahead of a price slide for the company's shares, ABCNEWS has learned.

Investigators are looking over the communications in a bid to determine if the home-furnishings magnate broke the law the day she dumped her ImClone shares. Copies of the documents have been obtained by ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

On Dec. 27, Stewart sold $227,000 worth of stock in the biotech company ImClone. The very next day, the company announced bad news that pushed the stock price sharply lower.

On the morning of Dec. 27, Merrill Lynch stockbroker Peter Bacanovic was asked by ImClone founder Samuel Waksal's daughter Aliza to sell all her stock in the company. Samuel Waksal, a friend of Stewart's, was indicted on insider trading and other charges Wednesday.

Within an hour of the sale of the daughter's stock, Bacanovic was trying to call Stewart, who was also his client, according to one of Stewart's assistants. Congressional investigators probing the ImClone case are now exploring whether Bacanovic could have tipped off Stewart.

First Contact

In a copy of an affidavit obtained by Good Morning America, the assistant said: "The call from Peter Bacanovic … came in some time between approximately 10 a.m. and 11 a.m."

Stewart, however, was unreachable. She was on a private plane, on her way from Connecticut to San Antonio, Texas. As they waited for Stewart's plane to land, Bacanovic and his assistant, Douglas Faneuil, swapped e-mails, copies of which have also been obtained by Good Morning America.

At 1:17 p.m, Bacanovic wrote: "Has news come out yet? Let me know."

At 1:20, Faneuil replied, "Noting yet. I'll let you know. No call from Martha either."

When Stewart's plane landed at 1:30 p.m., she called her office, where her assistant had earlier noted in the message log: "Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward." Almost immediately, Stewart called Bacanavic's office, and 11 minutes later, the broker was selling all of Stewart's ImClone stock.