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Mark Cuban Found Not Guilty of Insider Trading

Posted by samzenpus on from the off-the-hook dept.

schwit1 writes "Mark Cuban won a years-long fight with the federal government Wednesday as jurors decided that the billionaire basketball team owner did not commit insider-trading when he sold his shares in an Internet company in 2004. The jury in federal district court in Dallas said that the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to prove the key elements of its case, including the claim that Cuban agreed to keep certain information confidential and not trade on it. The nine-member jury deliberated about half a day before reaching the unanimous decision that ended the three-week trial."

4 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Keep your eye off the real game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    And why should I read a link from a bunch of fucking retards?

    Because it makes a whole lot better sense than anything that Rachel Maddow ever spews...

  2. Regardless by rmdingler · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nine years on the defense is a costly alternative available to but a fraction of defendants... much like American health care options, there almost seems to be a disparity in the remedies afforded the differing social classes.~

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Regardless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not really. The SEC typically catches insider trading by working their way up the chain specifically because they KNOW the low level flunkies can't afford the defense.

      If you're genuinely innocent and the SEC accuses you of insider trading, you either turn into a squealer or suffer (social and financial) death by a thousand cuts.

  3. It's widespread, but really hard to prove by Gordo_1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even in the Martha Stewart case, they only got her on obstruction of justice. Hard to say whether Cuban was legit or not, all we know is that the evidence was not strong enough to convict.

    The theory seems to be that insider trading is so widespread and difficult to prove that one of the government's strategies is to go after a few high profile 'celebrity' cases as a way to drive awareness among the populace. It probably gets your average Joe to think twice before trading on a tip from an executive friend higher up in the corporate ladder, but I suspect the people who really know what they're doing siphon millions out of the market daily.