The SEC, the US Securities and Exchanges Commission, has issued insider trading charges. Nothing new there. But the accused is quite a shock: Dallas Mavericks owner and erstwhile film producer Mark Cubanwho it is alleged sold 600,000 shares in a Canadian search engine called mamma.com (now called Copernic) -- essentially, he knew an upcoming supplementary offering would dilute the share price so he sold all his shares the same day he supposedly got the tip. By doing so, he avoided losing $750,000.
(Source: KTXA, Dallas TX)
Yes, the same Mark Cuban who made a huge profit before the dot-com bubble burst; the same Cuban who has been fined about $1.5 million over the years by the NBA for his repeated outbursts against referees.
As always, one presumes innocence until proof of guilt. But after Enron, Worldcom, Xerox and even one solitary figure named Martha Stewart, you'd think that Cuban would know better than to profit from important info like that at the expense of others -- if the allegations are true. Even if one could make a technical argument that nothing illegal was done, it still amounts to an unfair advantage. Just as there's a morals clause for players there should be one for owners -- and the NBA should suspend Cuban pending the outcome of the trial.
Sadly, there goes yet another figure we presumed was at least slightly ethical; even if he's acquitted he's dead meat as far as a public profile goes.
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