Texas Securities Case: Mark Cuban Asks District Court To Reconsider Compelling the SEC to Produce Documents Related to Insider Trading Allegations Over Mamma.com Stock Offering

For the third time, billionaire Mark Cuban is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to reconsider a previous ruling denying his motion to make the Securities and Exchange Commission provide summaries and interview notes related to its probe into his alleged insider trading activities. Cuban also wants the court to make the SEC give over similar documents in its investigation of Mamma.com.

The SEC had filed insider trading charges against Cuban, who is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and the founder of HDNet, in 2008. The Commission is contending after Cuban became involved in a confidentiality agreement while on the phone with Mamma.com’s CEO about that company’s decision to take part in a PIPE offering, within hours of being given this insider information, he contacted his broker and allegedly improperly sold his 600,000 shares prior to the PIPE announcement. As a result, he avoided more than $750,000 in losses. Cuban has denied the Texas securities fraud allegations.

The district court threw out the SEC’s charges against Cuban in 2009, but the following year the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revived and remanded the Texas securities lawsuit against him. Then, last August Cuban moved to have certain documents produced, and he followed that request in September with an amended second motion. The SEC submitted its own motion to compel Cuban to produce documents in November.

Earlier this year, the district court ruled that Cuban is entitled to the nonprivileged parts of the SEC’s investigative files related to the probes on him and Mamma.com, as well as to documents having to do with the connection between the two investigations. The court, however, also decided that the Commission isn’t required to produce documents pertaining to certain individuals’ involvement with Mamma.com or the interview summaries and factual sections from the SEC’s interviews with certain witnesses in its Cuban probe.

Now, in his latest motion to compel, Cuban has stated that he believes that the summaries and notes he wants produced will allow his witnesses to remember events that happened nearly a decade ago. Referring to the court’s previous decision to partially grant his motion, Cuban said that the interview notes that the SEC produced after the court’s last order not only “exonerate” him but also demonstrate the “undue hardship” he is facing in litigating this lawsuit if the SEC is allowed to keep “withholding” interview documents.

SEC v. Cuban is slated to go to trial.

SEC Accuses Mark Cuban of Insider Trading, New York Times, November 17, 2008
Cuban Asks Court, for Third Time, To Compel SEC to Produce Documents, Bloomberg/BNA, June 12, 2012

More Blog Posts:
Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban’s Allegations of Misconduct Against the SEC Enforcement Staff are Without Merit, Says Inspector General’s Report, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, October 18, 2011

After District Court Dismisses Texas Securities Fraud Against Billionaire Mark Cuban, SEC Appeal Can Now Move Forward, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, August 17, 2009
US Sentencing Commission is Open to Public Comment on Proposed Amendments that Could Impact Insider Trading Convictions, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, February 29, 2012
If you believe that Texas securities fraud caused you to suffer investment losses, do not hesitate to contact Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD, LLP. Your initial case evaluation with us is free.