NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Martha Stewart is unloading an expensive property, just before she's sentenced for obstructing justice and lying to investigators.
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Corcoran Group told CNNfn that Stewart has signed a contract to sell her Greenwich Village luxury duplex condominium, though the New York real estate firm declined to provide details of the deal.
The New York Post Thursday pegged the selling price at about $7 million, less than the $8 million she wanted when it was first listed back in 2002. The newspaper said that Stewart, 62, who also owns a number of other pricey pieces of real estate, has never lived in the West Village duplex.
The paper quoted a real estate source as saying that Stewart "wanted to get as much of her (financial) house in order before Friday," when Stewart is due to be sentenced for lying to federal investigators about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001.
The deluxe 15-story doorman building features an upscale health club, a 24-hour concierge, a wine cellar, a planned restaurant, and extra security for its high-profile residents, the Post said, and carries maintenance charges of about $8,800 a month.
Stewart had planned to move into the 3,600-square-foot space but decided against it after the ImClone scandal gained momentum, according to the report.
The building's other celebrity residents include actress Nicole Kidman and designer Calvin Klein, the newspaper said.
Stewart's other properties include her extensive "Turkey Hill" farm in Westport, Conn., a farm in upstate Bedford, N.Y., the former Edsel Ford estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, a Fifth Avenue pied-a-terre and a summer home on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton, the report said.
Stewart's spokeswoman, Susan Magrino, declined to comment on the transaction, the Post said.
In the past few weeks, Martha has dumped $4.36 million of her company's stock — the first time she's cashed out any of her own shares since she founded the good-living firm, the paper said.
Stewart and former Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic were convicted March 5 on four felony counts each of obstructing justice and making false statements related to Stewart's well-timed sale of ImClone (IMCL: Research, Estimates) stock in late 2001.
New York federal judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who has twice delayed this hearing, will sentence Stewart Friday morning, and then Bacanovic in the afternoon.
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Despite her personal woes, the New York Times reported that Stewart has kept a high profile, making appearances at the Manhattan premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and at other celebrity hotspots, including the Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan.
"She isn't hiding in her bunker, and she isn't going out in some sort of false exuberance," the paper quoted Richard Feigen, a Manhattan art dealer who escorted Stewart to the "Fahrenheit" premiere, as saying.
"She's strong, and looking at things as positively as possible."
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