Man's testimony in case saves him from prison time

NEW YORK (AP) -- A former brokerage assistant who helped Martha Stewart make her fateful stock trade and later emerged as a key government witness was spared both prison and probation Friday and fined just $2,000 for accepting a payoff during the government's investigation.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum imposed the fine against Douglas Faneuil one week after she sentenced the convicted homemaking entrepreneur to five months in prison and five months home detention for lying to authorities.
His voice quavering, the defendant said he had feared his testimony would never prevail "against rich and powerful people. I was wrong, and for that I am immensely grateful."
Sentencing
Faneuil had faced up to six months in prison under sentencing guidelines after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of accepting a payoff. But prosecutors recommended no jail time after his testimony helped them secure a conviction of Stewart in federal court in Manhattan.
Faneuil, 28, was an assistant to Stewart's stock broker and co-defendant, Peter Bacanovic, who was convicted along with Stewart and received the same sentence as Stewart did.
Prosecutors had alleged that in 2001, Bacanovic ordered Faneuil to tip Stewart that her longtime friend, Sam Waksal, was dumping shares of his biotechnology company, ImClone Systems Inc. Waksal had advance knowledge of a government report on an experimental drug that later sent shares of ImClone into a freefall.
Stewart and Bacanovic always maintained she sold because of a preset plan to unload the stock when it fell to $60 -- a claim Faneuil backed before pleading guilty.
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