Mark Cuban Charged
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 8:14 am
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team, was charged with insider trading in shares of Mamma.com Inc, an Internet search engine firm, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday.
Cuban, one of the five finalists to buy the Chicago Cubs pro baseball team, faces civil charges by acting on nonpublic information and selling shares of Mamma.com to avoid more than $750,000 in losses, the SEC alleged.
According to the SEC, Mamma.com invited Cuban to participate in a stock offering that would be conducted at a discount to the market price after he agreed to keep the information confidential.
However, within hours of receiving information, Cuban called his broker and told him to sell his entire position in the company, the SEC alleged.
When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com's stock price dropped 9.3 percent from the prior day's closing price.
Calls to Cuban's lawyers were not immediately returned.
Mamma.com has since changed its name to Copernic Inc.
My Future DIL works for the Mavericks as an intern right now...wonder what it's going to be like at the office tomorrow?