Washington - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday charged Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and founder of HDNet, with insider trading over shares in a company called Mamma.com he sold in 2004. The SEC says Cuban improperly sold his 600,000 shares in Mamma.com after being informed by its CEO in a confidential manner of a transaction that would devalue his shares.

"As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential," said Scott W. Friestad, deputy director of the SEC's division of enforcement.

"Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market."

Cuban, who sold his Broadcast.com venture to Yahoo for $5.9 billion in stock back in 1999, is also the co-founder of HDNet and 2929 Entertainment, owner of Landmark Theatres, and backer of Sharesleuth.com, a site created to uncover fraud and misinformation in publicly traded companies.

Related Links:
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-273.htm

http://snipurl.com/5pyg0 (Silicon Alley Insider)