As you know, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was accused of insider trading by the SEC yesterday. And Cuban, of course, vowed to fight the feds until the very end.
The basis for the charge is that Cubes sold shares in an internet search engine company after learning (and disagreeing) with its pending business moves, and before the general public became aware of said moves.
There is, however, apparently a much juicier angle to the story: According to Cuban’s people, it appears as though politics may be playing a role in Mark’s legal dilemma.
From the Dallas Morning News:
However, people close to Mr. Cuban suggested the SEC’s probe was tainted by an adversarial relationship the entrepreneur had with SEC lawyer Jeffrey Norris in Fort Worth.
In one e-mail, Mr. Norris criticized Mr. Cuban for “smearing the good name of a patriot like President Bush,” because of Mr. Cuban’s reported involvement with a controversial film about the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Cuban said he played no role with the film, Loose Change.
The alleged email – which you see reprinted here in its entirety – will have no bearing on the case, says the SEC.
Cuban’s biggest problem in this may turn out to be not so much Washington’s murky involvement, but his own blog, on which he detailed the reasons for selling the stocks when he did.
