On November 17, 2008, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they had filed
insider trading charges against entrepreneur and
Dallas Mavericks owner
Mark Cuban. The civil complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that
Cuban sold his 600,000 shares in Mamma.com after obtaining confidential information that the company was about to make a private investment in public equity offering. Cuban reportedly avoided a loss of $750,000 by selling his stock before Mamma.com offered more shares for public sale, which would have diluted his stock offering. Prior to selling his shares in June of 2004, Cuban was the largest shareholder in the company.
[SEC: Litigation Release: SEC v. Mark Cuban (November 17, 2008)]