Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced yesterday — just hours before the annual stockholders meeting in Manhattan — that the U.S. attorney's office had notified Stewart's lawyers that she should expect a criminal indictment "in the near future."

That could mean today or a week from now, according to two sources familiar with the case. The only surprise, said one, would be if the indictment failed to materialize.

The company said it also expects the Securities and Exchange Commission to follow through on an earlier threat to file civil securities-fraud charges against Stewart.

The company's stock fell 15 percent yesterday, making it the day's second-biggest loser on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stewart, the chairwoman, chief executive and controlling shareholder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, skipped her annual meeting, held at a Midtown auditorium.

In a brief videotape shown to the 75 or 80 shareholders on hand, she apologized for being absent but explained that under the circumstances, her presence would be a distraction, a company spokeswoman said.

Stewart, 61, would stand out as a glamour target for prosecutors even against a backdrop of financial scandals involving high-profile companies suchas Citigroup, Enron, WorldCom and Merrill Lynch.

A former stockbroker and model, she was the subject of an NBC movie in which actress Cybill Shepherd portrayed her as a tyrant who built and has ruled her domestics empire through intimidation and with manic energy.

Stewart denies wrongdoing and is determined to fight any charges, according to a see-you-in-court statement issued yesterday by her head criminal lawyer, Robert G. Morvillo.

"If Martha Stewart is indicted," Morvillo said, "she intends to declare her innocence and proceed to trial."

A federal grand jury in Manhattan has been investigating Stewart's December 2001 sale of $227,000 worth of stock in the biotech company ImClone.

The sale occurred a day before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the company's application to sell its experimental cancer drug Erbitux. ImClone's shares went tumbling as soon as that news got out.

ImClone was headed at the time by Stewart's friend Samuel D. Waksal, who has since pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges.

Potential charges against Stewart could include insider trading or obstruction of justice, both felonies carrying stiff fines and prison terms, legal experts said.

If there is an indictment, the case likely wouldn't go to trial for at least six months, probably longer, said former federal prosecutor Richard Serafini, a securities-law partner in the firm of Broad & Cassel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Stewart's empire — including Martha Stewart Living magazine, her TV show, an online retailing business and a home-products partnership with Kmart — has been struggling.