A Year After Dallas Federal Judge Booted SEC's Case Against Mark Cuban, It Lives Again

Sam MertenIn July 2009, U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint that Mark Cuban violated insider-trading laws when, in 2004, he sold off $750,000 in Mamma.com stock. Cuban, of course, poo-poohed the claim when originally brought by the SEC in November 2008: "The government's claims...

By Robert Wilonsky

September 21, 2010

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In July 2009, U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint that Mark Cuban violated insider-trading laws when, in 2004, he sold off $750,000 in Mamma.com stock. Cuban, of course, poo-poohed the claim when originally brought by the SEC in November 2008: "The government's claims are false and they will be proven to be so." The SEC decided last fall to appeal Fitzwater's dismissal nevertheless.

And as The Wall Street Journal notes in a just-posted piece about the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to vacate the initial ruling, the judges have indeed decided that "there was 'more than a plausible' basis to find that Mr. Cuban agreed not to trade stock in Mamma.com, an Internet search company, after speaking to the company's executives and learning about a private stock offering." The court has kicked the complaint back to the lower court "for further proceedings including discovery, consideration of summary judgment, and trial, if reached." The ruling, which just went up on PACER, follows.

Fifth Circuit Ruling in SEC v Mark Cuban

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