Dallas Mavericks Owner in Hot Seat Over Insider Trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban for alleged insider trading, as reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The SEC alleges that Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Mamma.com, Inc., a Canadian Internet search engine, in June 2004, based upon information about a pending stock offering which had not been made public. The SEC alleges that Cuban knew that the stock offering would be done at a discount price, and would dilute the stakes of existing shareholders in the company. Cuban is alleged to have avoided a loss of more than $750,000 by selling his shares in Mamma.com less than 4 hours after he learned of the impending offering. The SEC is seeking to bar Cuban from further violations, disgorgement of any gains and an unspecified penalty.
Cuban started the company MicroSolutions in Dallas in the 1980s and sold the company in 1990 to CompuServe for $6 million. Cuban then partnered with a college friend and started a company called Audionet, which eventually became Broadcast.com and was purchased by Yahoo in 1999 for $5.9 billion in Yahoo stock. Cuban is currently listed as #133 on Forbes' list of the "World's Richest People," with a net worth of $2.8 billion.
Gillen Withers & Lake LLC are white collar and corporate criminal defense attorneys with an outstanding reputation and track record, handling cases throughout Georgia and the nation. Call our Atlanta, Georgia, office at (404) 842-9700 or our Savannah, Georgia, office at (912) 447-8400.
