“SEC charges Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading.” – The Wall Street Journal
UPDATE: Apparently it was for “…alleged insider sales at mamma.com”
UPDATE II: Here’s the complaint, and the press release from the SEC:
SEC FILES INSIDER TRADING CHARGES AGAINST MARK CUBAN
Washington, D.C., Nov. 17, 2008 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.
The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.
Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.
“Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”
The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission’s complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.
# # #
For more information, contact:
Scott W. Friestad
Deputy Director, SEC’s Division of Enforcement
(202) 551-4963
Robert B. Kaplan
Assistant Director, SEC’s Division of Enforcement
(202) 551-4969
There goes hit shot at buying the Cubs.
1st
What are the first year inmate numbers?
2008 has not been a good year for mavericks, eh?
@1 you said it. No way he’s getting the Cubs now.
So lets start a pool on Andy Coumo – how long until they take him out? He is going after their bonuses from 2 years ago! Don’t mess with the Man’s money, they will take you down – meanwhile we all are getting thrown out on the street!
http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/no-hope-for-homeowners-foreclosure-prevention-program-falters/
And who else is on the hit list? AG’s from IL and CA?
So lets start a pool on Andy Cuomo – how long until they take him out? He is going after their bonuses from 2 years ago! Don’t mess with the Man’s money, they will take you down – meanwhile we all are getting thrown out on the street!
http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/no-hope-for-homeowners-foreclosure-prevention-program-falters/
And who else is on the hit list? AG’s from IL and CA?
He’s an alleged insider in his mamma? gross…
Couldn’t have happened to a better P.O.S.
wonder if this is why..
http://blogmaverick.com/2005/03/02/naked-shorts-what-i-have-learned/#comments
He should change his blog name to BlogPrison
Absolute scum bag! Made a fortune selling Yahoo! shares before it crashed. Lucky timing no more. Go to jail and throw away the key!
watch your cornhole dude
Cuban will be crying for mamma while he’s tossing some aryan national’s salad
So how does clusterstock cover this story?
I can picture him sitting on the side of the court berating Tim Donaghy’s officiating during a rec hour pickup game…
@15 – Jelly or syrup?
pwn3d
@15 – Jelly or syrup?
Let’s hope he doesn’t run out onto the court yelling at the Judge during his arraignment. Contempt of court is a bit more serious than team owner misconduct.
This is the dumbest shit i’ve ever heard. What if the stock rallied on the news because it was viewed as a capital infusion. Then I guess Cuban wouldn’t have committed insider trading but have made a bad decision?
Shut down the SEC and return the money to share holders.
Insider trading law presume insiders aren’t retarded. But as we’ve seen insiders usually drink the company kool-aid and make the worst decisions of all. Let em sell.
i guess when you have a 12 inch cock cause you’re a billionaire after swindling a bunch of stanford geeks into buying your dumbass html pages, the only thing left to do is go to prison and meet ving rhames for a little tough love
Good to see the SEC can still catch the big fish.
I’m sure he’s not going to repeat Martha Stewart’s mistake. He’s got to have amnesia by now.
Well played, #5, very well played!
Hey Vol-is-King…
You are a retard.. having non-public information precludes any activity in the shares, buys or sells, regardless of the impact or the value of the news..
Cuban is a bored frat-boy who got lucky in the dot-com era. I think a year in the slammer with a girlfriend named “Bubba” would send a message to other bozos like him..
It’s only the SEC so he’ll pay a fine and get sanctioned some other SEC can’t send people to jail. Cuban’s chocolate starfish is safe unless we see the letters DOJ…
Any guesses on who scooped the SEC?
Angry Mavs fan, Future Cubs owner, or perhaps Avery Johnson.
@24:
didn’t those stanford geeks just try to sell their HTML pages to some harvard geeks last week for less than what they paid Cuban? If there’s one thing Cuban has learned in the NBA its how to defend against crooked refs who are on the take and in debt to the Mob.
The SEC is in for the embarrassment of a life time. Cuban will call his college professor and assign an accounting class to dig up every insider trade, ponzi scheme, cluster fuck, circle jerk and bag job on the street and why the fuck is the SEC is harassing him over $750,000 when AIG just swindled the american people out of $250bn and counting?
What jury gonna convict the Tribune of the Plebs?
No one read the complaint? This is just a civil SEC complaint, they want him to disgorge the 750k he made and pay a civil penalty. No jail time.
I PREFER SYRUP
Johnny… you got a “D”, you know what that means!!!!!!!
Cuban sucks and I’m so glad to see him go down. Have fun in federal pound me in the ass prison, girlfriend.
@30 It could have been as simple as the CEO thinking Cuban was a douchebag .
@28:
hey i know what it precludes. But they only prosecute the people who insider trade and make money. If you insider trade an lose money they don’t do shit…. that was my point.
No one read the complaint? This is just a civil SEC complaint, they want him to disgorge the 750k he made and pay a civil penalty. No jail time.
Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. What a crock of BS, if you’re not part of the REAL insider YOU’RE screwed. “the commission” in other words, Mafia “Enforcer”, if they were to RELLLLLLY “aggressively purse insider trading when ever it occurs”??? Daily operations of the stock market would cease to exist!!! Cuban must have really pissed someone off!!!!
non-event
Stock now trading .25
Nice sell Cuban
INSIDER TRADING??? What a joke – Paulson and the Goldman Sachs Kabal are the biggest insider-trading, America hating fuckers ever – selling us off piece by piece to their Chinese Overlords – our new masters!
http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/liars-and-the-lying-lies-they-are-telling-you/
Cuban’ entire net-worth is not even a hair on a flea on a fly in a frog on a log compared to the Trillion$$$ of dollars Paulson and his Mini-Me (who is not surprisingly named “Cash-n-Carry”) and the rest of the Goldman Sachs Treasury and Federal Reserve Corporation is walking away with!
Cuban is just a distraction from the real crimes.
Shave your hair, tell everyone you have AIDS….you should be alright now
I can’t believe you are covering this on John Mack’s birthday. Can’t we get a story on John Mack?
@28 Cuban never could have got into a fraternity, even after he made money he use to go to bars and beg women to go on flight with him anywhere on him. Biggest tool ever.
SEND HIS ASS TO THE SUPERMAX PRISON IN COLORADO!!
I DON’T WANT TO SEE HIS OBNOXIOUS ASS ON TV ANYMORE!!
actually, if he’s even convicted which is highly unlikely he’s spend 3 months max in a minimum security prison without walls.
Who will manage the Mavericks and Cubs while Cuban is in jail?
Cuban, you’re no Steve Jobs.
Comments have really gone downhill…I blame Timmay for this. I’d be curious to know how many professionals are still reading this site.
Why am I not surprised Merriman was part of this shady PIPE? A little over a year ago they were shopping a public to private to us at a price that was north of where it was trading (chalked it up to control premium). As soon as we decided to meet with management trading price of targetco starts trading up, turns out MCF told the primary shareholder (an HF) about potential increased interst in the deal so the HF was loading up on shares. Such a shady outfit…
As soon as I read the news; I knew you (ep) were going to write up something on this within minutes; Christmas come early :)
@23 that post exhibited the mental tenacity of an 8 month old chimp.
Cuban clearly committed fraud. “Everyone else does it, so let me do it too” is not a valid argument. Among the many, many irritating qualities Cuban exhibitis are rashness, rudeness, general lack of intelligence, little common sense, and complete disregard for others. Ironically, this charge validates every single one of those qualities.
Why defend an idiot? Now you look like one too.
He’s not going to jail – don’t you know admin law? Stop making those comments about jail.
#52: What about prison?
MysTTTal
Cuban’s fines should have to cover main street’s losses from all that predatory real estate lending. Also, the middle-class should get to have two Christmas’s this year.
Yay for Dems in office!
I’m like the Wayne Gretzky of American Sex
They should change the name of this post: Why never to buy stock without anti-dilutive protection.
It would be nice to see him get out of this one by proving that the information was not the motivating animus behind his stock sale. “I was sure the stock offering would rally the company and be oversubscribed. . . However, I needed some cash on hand to by ______, so that is why I sold.”
For fk sake – if any charge should be filed here, it should be a breach of fiduciary duty by the mamma.com’s BOD.
Psychopathy checklist:
Glibness / superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning / manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow
Callous / lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Promiscuous sexual behavior
Need for stimulation / proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Poor behavioral control
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility
Juvenile delinquency
Early behavior problems
Many short-term marital relationships
Criminal versatility
Sounds like Cuban!
Signed,
Mr. McKnuckles
i’d pay the carnival entry fee to see a gasbag/cuban love child. Without a doubt that kid would grow up to be the hairiest, douchiest person on earth
@59, that sounds more like your garden variety Narcissism
First!
This is insane. If the guy wanted to make 750k, he’d just sign a cheaper role player to the Mavs. For example, keep your second round player over a signing a veteran. Seriously, 750k for Cuban is nothing.
@51:
” rashness, rudeness, general lack of intelligence, little common sense, and complete disregard for others.”
in other words he’s a…. drum roll, please sarah palin…. Maverick…. i guess he bought the right team huh?
I have much more respect for Cuban than the SEC. Whenever the SEC does something I assume its fucked, and this is no exception.
@49 True- The only ones making money in that place are the Defense Atty’s
@ 64 I highly doubt anyone on this site cares about who you respect more. This is a pissing contest between Cuban and the government, not you, Cuban and the government.
This thread had enough ego and testosterone in it before put your head in the door and made us all want the last minute of our lives back. Come to think of it, we were already thinking that as soon as we read the headline.
Associate numbers?
@59….just about covers most of our elected officials and corporate officers.
Vol is King services…errrr…works for Cuban. Dude, quit posting as ‘Guest’.
Of course this has nothing, nothing at all, to do with Cuban being behind BailoutSleuth.
While it sometimes seems petty to go after billionaires (one thinks of Martha Stewart) over small transactions, Mark Cuban has been due for a take down for some time. His mouth and ego far exceed his ability to understand his great luck at being in his current position.
Finnegan
wahhh wahhh “Cuban just got lucky” Wahh Wahhh.
Go ahead let him off with a fine. The insider trading is the least of this douchebag’s problems.
He should be in jail from criminal douche-bagness. That’s the real crime here. We’re all his victims.
Maybe $750K is peanuts to Cuban, but that is how it usually comes down to…
Martha Stewart’s gains were what?
Sabrient.com/smart/qmaxx
That picture is gayer than Chicago Booth.
That picture is gayer than Chicago Booth.
Douche in the Booth
Ah,
The last of the criminal boat-lift refugees finally arrested!. Now we can seriously focus on the Venezuelans.
His two simple moves to escape the authoities(complex for Americans) were to 1) move to Dallas(ie far from Calle Ocho or Brickell Avenue and 2) buy a sports team(the religion of the under-, some over-100 IQ crowd).
That’s why the US should have not only a sensible immigration policy but also a sensible emigration policy (ie US kicks out stupid citizens at the same rate(or higher if can get away with it) that it imports good brains) T 622