Court Dismisses SEC vs Mark Cuban Suit

On Friday, the federal district court judge in Texas granted Mark Cuban's motion to dismiss the insider trading charges against him. I have been blogging about the case since it's inception (the posts and analysis are available here).

I am still digesting the opinion, which actually rejects a number of Mr. Cuban's legal arguments, but in the end, agrees with him. I will post a more detailed analysis as soon as my own trial schedule allows, but the short version is that the Court, assuming the SEC's allegations to be true, found that those allegations were not enough. While there may have been an agreement to keep the information confidential, there was no agreement not to trade on the information.

Contrary to the posts of many on the Internet, it is not a total win. The SEC's complaint was dismissed for failing to state a claim. It has 30 days to file a new complaint, and has not said what it will do.

In my experience, the SEC has already taken its best shot. As I discussed in the earlier posts, they stretched their facts about as far as they can be stretched, and I doubt that they will be filing a new complaint. An appeal maybe, but not a new complaint.

Marc Dreier Sentenced To 20 Years in Prison

In case you forgot about him,Marc Dreier has been sentenced to 20 years fordefrauding clients and investors of over $400 million. Law Blog - WSJ

The SEC's "Feel Good" Committee

The SEC's new "investor Advisory Committee" is getting ready to become a functioning entity. The committee was created to advise the SEC on matters of concern to investors, and to provide the Commission with investor perspective on regulatory issues. My view on the Committee is in this month's On Wall Street Magazine, in an article titled "The SEC's 'Feel Good' Committee".