Saturday, August 1, 2009

Mark Cuban Vindicated

"A federal judge threw out the [SEC's] insider-trading charges against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and undercut the SEC's legal argument in a way that could make it more difficult to prosecute similar cases. ... The judge gave the SEC 30 days to refile charges if it can make stronger allegations against Mr. Cuban. The SEC declines to comment on the ruling or say what it plans to do, but outside lawyers said its chances of prevailing on a second try are low. ... Mr. Cuban and his lawyers denied that he was under any obligation not to trade on the information he received. ... The agency had no case because it never alleged Mr. Cuban made such a promise, the judge said. ... The ruling says that even if a person who receives information agrees to keep it secret, it isn't necessarily a violation of securities laws to trade on the information", Brent Kendall and Ann Zimmerman at the WSJ, 18 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124784175667658251.html.

I agree with judge Sidney Fitzwater. Go Cuban. The SEC lawyers look for nothing cases like this to appear to do something. I explain it this way: suppose you agree to fix a roof. You fail to fix it. The person who paid you sues you in contract or tort. What's the crime?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mark Cuban, although very wealthy, is an amateur related to stuff in the financial markets.

The SEC is either lazy or too conflicted cause they should be looking for scalps like Stan O'Neil's or John Thain's...

Billions were lost through what appears to be fraud at Merrill and other firms.

Billion is a big number let me write it out... -- 1,000 million -- $ 1,000,000,0000