Mark Cuban, the boisterous owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was found not guilty of insider trading by a Texas jury on Wednesday. Cuban stood accused of illegally trading stock of the Internet search company Mamma.com in 2004. The S.E.C said that Cuban relied on non-public information when he sold 600,000 shares of the company’s stock, worth $7.9 million, avoiding a $750,000 loss.
The case, Forbes reports, came down to whether Cuban breached a confidentiality agreement when he sold his shares after receiving info from Mamma.com’s CEO that would dilute Cuban’s holdings. Here’s more from Forbes on the legal crux of the court case:
During the three-week trial, legal experts often differed on the burden the SEC needed to meet – a sign of just how much gray area exists in insider trading law. Some believe that any promise by Cuban to keep news of the placement confidential rendered trading in the stock illegal, that the two are effectively intertwined. Others interpret the law as one that separates confidentiality and trading – that a promise to keep information to yourself isn’t a promise not to trade.
Forbes magazine estimates Cuban to have a net worth of $2.5 billion.
