It was a saturday night in march 2004, and Martha Stewart's world was crumbling. A week earlier she had been convicted for lying to federal investigators, and her business empire, not to mention her reputation, was in tatters. But for now, while Stewart remained free, her worried friends were welcoming her to a dinner party to deal with the crisis. The guests included Jane Heller, a banker to the superwealthy who with her husband had initiated the gathering. The host, however, was Charles Koppelman, a casual acquaintance of Stewart's who was guiding Steve Madden's shoe company while the namesake founder was serving a 41-month prison sentence for securities fraud.
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