Mark Cuban claim of SEC bias is ‘absurd,’ agency says
Securities and Exchange Commission investigators were trying to persuade supervisors to protect billionaire Mark Cuban's privacy when they internally e-mailed photos demonstrating his fame, the agency said.
Securities and Exchange Commission investigators were trying to persuade supervisors to protect billionaire Mark Cuban’s privacy when they internally e-mailed photos demonstrating his fame, the agency said.
Cuban, who wants the SEC to pay his legal fees after he fought off its insider-trading claims, told a court last month that the e-mails show the agency held a bias against him. In a court filing yesterday, the regulator argued that its lawyers were trying to persuade senior officials to keep the inquiry from becoming public.
“The context surrounding the sending of the photos illustrates the absurdity of Cuban’s claim,” the SEC told a federal court in Dallas. “The photos are evidence not of bias but of a carefully considered effort by SEC’s staff to limit distribution of information.”
Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, wants to take testimony from SEC investigators and officials as he argues the agency acted improperly in suing him. In its latest filing, the regulator asked the court to halt that push, because documents it has provided to him so far don’t back his claims.
“Cuban still has no evidence — merely his persistent assumptions, claims, speculations and hypotheses,” the SEC wrote. His “allegations are unsupportable, and it is now clear that he is engaged not in a quest to uncover the truth, but one to harass the staff and divert the resources of the commission and the court.” The regulator also disputed Cuban’s claim it tried to discourage a witness’s testimony.
Cuban’s lawyers, Stephen Best and Christopher Clark of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The SEC sued Cuban in November 2008, claiming he illegally avoided more than $750,000 in losses by selling his stake in Mamma.com Inc. after learning in 2004 that it planned to issue more shares. The SEC is appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of the case last year.
The case is SEC v. Cuban, 08-cv-02050, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas). The appeals case is SEC v. Cuban, 09-10996, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans).
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