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Mark Cuban Charged With Insider Trading
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Nov 17, 2008 04:37 PM
from the that's-a-way-to-make-bank dept.
from the that's-a-way-to-make-bank dept.
geekboy_x writes "The SEC today charged Mark Cuban with insider trading violations, alleging that he divested himself of stock in mamma.com before the stock was diluted via a public offering." Something tells me that the billionaire blogger won't be talking about this one publicly any time soon.
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Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Informative)
Something tells me that the billionaire blogger won't be talking about this one publicly any time soon.
Are you crazy? Do you know how many page hits that would generate?! You don't know Mark Cuban. Of course, from his blog a few hours ago [blogmaverick.com]:
"I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff's win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff's process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government's claims are false and they will be proven to be so."
I'm not a lawyer. As for the case, I think this crap happens more often than you would like to think--the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The fact that this occurred in June of '04 and he's being charged for it now implies that either it takes that long to build up evidence for a case or you don't hear about this until someone slips up. Also, I don't recall hearing the SEC drop charges or lose these cases very often so I'm pretty sure this guy is boned.
Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. She was convicted of lying to investigators when she wasn't under oath and hadn't been warned that what she said might be used against her. Not only that, what she lied about must not have been a crime because she was never charged with anything else.
Now we know: never talk to the feds unless your lawyer's present, even if you don't think you've done anything against the law.
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Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:4, Insightful)
Now everyone who read this send me $200 for legal services rendered.
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Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a lawyer [google.com]
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Can AND WILL Be Used Against You (Score:3, Insightful)
To be fair, the lesson I take from it is don't lie to the feds without a lawyer present. (And even then...)
Anything you say that turns out not to be true, even if you don't know it, "can and will be used against you in a court of law." Anything you say that helps you is inadmissible [youtube.com] as 'hearsay'.
So if you do a two hour interview, are thoroughly truthful except for 15 seconds, which you may or may not know is not true, the jury will only know about those 15 seconds. Somebody file a bug.
Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:4, Insightful)
"Insider trading" can be very vauge and edge cases aren't clearly defined by statute or case law. Martha Stewart wasn't convicted of insider trading, she was convicted for obstruction of justice during the investigation (which might not have madei t to trial). If he shuts up, doesn't lie, and doesn't try to destroy evidence, he'll find it a lot easier to stay out of jail.
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Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Informative)
As for the case, I think this crap happens more often than you would like to think--the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The fact that this occurred in June of '04 and he's being charged for it now implies that either it takes that long to build up evidence for a case or you don't hear about this until someone slips up.
As a hobbiest stock trader, I can tell you with confidence that inside trading happens a hell of a lot. Theres billions of dollars to be made. In fact, it happens so much - that there are many technical-trading techniques used to "follow the insiders". So every so often they find an inside trader, chuck him in jail and try make everyone happy. I'd much prefer if the government just got it's nose out of the market. The only thing insider traders do is lead to a more accurate market..
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Now let's say you're knocking back a few beers with your Intel buddy, and he tells you the i7 CPUs are failing en masse, the management is crumbling and AMD is poised to deliver a fatal blow. So in short, you are now in possessio
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Holy shit, the i7 CPUs are failing en masse??!
YES, Sell, sell, sell. You should do what I do: base your trading on rumours you hear on Slashdot.
Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:5, Informative)
That's not insider trading. It may or may not even be stock options. The company I work for (one of the top 3 computer companies in the world) also encourages us to buy their stock, and offers stock options to its employees. They also require we take annual training on business ethics, and that we understand exactly what constitutes insider trading. There's even a question on the final exam of said training dealing specifically with when it would be unethical to purchase stock.
Knowing the general scuttlebutt around the company for how we're doing doesn't give me inside information. Pretty much the whole world knows which markets we're leading, and wich markets we're behind in. If somebody on the front lines is buying stock, they probably don't know anything more about the company than the public at large. We have another category entirely of employees, however... people who are windowed. Those people are given a window in which they are allowed to buy/sell company stock, and periods when they are not allowed to buy.
An example of when a windowed employee would not be allowed to buy would be, say, after our sales figures for the last quarter have been tallied, but before they have been published. People in the upper echelons of the company will know this information, and would be able to predict how their announcement will affect our stock market. With this in mind, they can react accordingly. This, in turn, would allow them to buy a bunch of stock before a sudden spike, or dump a bunch of stock before it falls. That is insider trading.
Insider trading is illegal, because it gives those people an unfair advantage over the rest of the world. That's why we have windowed employees... if you're in a position where insider trading is possible, you're told when not to buy/sell stock so that you can't be accused of it.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wrong, He Has a Blog Post On It (Score:4, Insightful)
BTW, in America people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, especially when Bush has a political crusade at stake.
I like Mark Cuban, and I can totally believe the Bush administration is trumping up charges against him. That said, your quote is one of my pet peeves, and is DEAD WRONG.
In America, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty IN A COURT OF LAW. The public at large is perfectly within its rights to judge anyone anyway it wants to. For example, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty in his first trial, yet I have no doubt he performed the crime.
All too often people in power and/or defense attorneys try and manipulate the public with the "innocent until proven guilty" junk. "Don't rush to judgment on my client just because he was seen with a smoking gun in his hand, remember, we're all innocent until proven guilty!" No, I'm under no obligation to judge people based on courtroom rules used to "prove" guilt. I can judge people based on whatever criteria seems reasonable to me.
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why should we care? (Score:5, Insightful)
for all i can tell, the guy registered "broadcast.com" in the 90s, created a pretty business plan, and sold out for billions at exactly the right time, and bought a basketball team
i applaud his timing and his luck and success, but i haven't the faintest idea as to why anything this guy ever did is of any interest to slashdot
Re: (Score:2)
It's easy. The Netspeak translation would be:
Mark Cuban is a Troll IRL.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why would a bunch of nerds be interested in a guy that made a BILLION DOLLARS doing something nerdy?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Ya but he didn't do anything nerdy. He's just another MBA asshat like all the other people we've been taught to despise. His only claim to fame is playing the stock game, and poorly at that. He just got reeeeeeeeally lucky.
The main difference between Mark Cuban and the Powerball winners, is Mark Cuban was born with his ass where his mouth should be.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In an open letter to Internet service providers published earlier this week, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban calls for telecoms to put an end to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing. Cuban expresses concerns that P2P "freeloaders" are clogging the tubes with commercial content. His letter doesn't focus on piracy, however, and instead primarily attacks companies that use P2P for legitimate commercial applications. [arstechnica.com]
It's good to be rich... (Score:3, Funny)
I wish *I* could be charged with insider trading.
It would mean I'm worth it enough to go after :(
Summary is incorrect (Score:5, Informative)
Mamma.com took a private investment at a discount (a PIPE [wikipedia.org]). This is a sign of weakness, and the announcement sent the shares lower. The SEC alleges that Mr. Cuban sold his shares with insider knowledge of the PIPE, liquidating his stake before it got battered the next day.
WSJ article [wsj.com] (report updated since I saw it earlier; it now erroneously says it was an investment in a private company).
Twice now (Score:5, Interesting)
Twice in my career I have had a good laugh at the expense of someone whose abuse I suffered.
The first was David Duncan. He was a senior finance/accounting manager when I was a peon at Mobil. I basically had to jump at his every request even though I never worked for him or his department. I left that job to start an internet business, but I really enjoyed the day that I saw David Duncan testifying before Congress, explaining Enron to them. Beautiful day.
The second is today. When my internet company was encoding and streaming his sports and talk radio broadcasts (innovative for 1994, mind you), Mark Cuban used to page me and call me at home at all hours with the most unreasonable demands and questions. Now I realize if I had been willing to kiss his ass the way he was accustomed to being kissed, I might be a billionaire today, but it would never have happened. Today I am all smiles.
Spin-Doctoring at its best. (Score:3, Insightful)
So, Cuban commits SEC fraud, and we're supposed to ignore it because he's anti-Bush and it was 4 years ago?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think he meant "wrong" not in a legal context but in a moral context; his argument thus leading, "neither of these two things are really wrong and should not be illegal".
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If you are a stockholder in a company, can the SEC consider you an insider under the law if an insider calls you and asks you to keep a secret?
So don't take his call or simply say, "La, La, La...I'm not listening!" when he tries to give you insider information.