Cuban Crisis

The payroll for Mark Cuban's pro basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, is pegged at $92 million and change this season, according to the web site sportscity.com. But Mark Cuban can afford it, because he's one of the Information Age gurus who didn't bomb out a decade ago. Forbes magazine last year reported his net worth at $2.8 billion. Why, then, would Mark Cuban mess around with a paltry $750,000 insider trading crime, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges in a filing today?

Even the lowest-paid Dallas Maverick, benchwarmer Nick Fazekas, makes a reported $711,517. Of course, that's nothing next to Jason Kidd at $21,372,000, or Dirk Nowitzki at $17,178,100.

But Mark Cuban is charged in federal court by the SEC. He is accused of selling 600,000 shares of mamma.com, an Internet search operation, while he possessed confidential information. To avoid a $750,000 loss, that's only a buck-and-a-quarter per share, and if this whole deal is true, Cuban sold high.

The alleged violation of antifraud federal securities laws transpired in June 2004, and even though the Dallas Mavericks didn't make the National Basketball Association finals that season, owner Mark Cuban's mind may have elsewhere at that time of year. Those who still follow the pro game know Cuban for dressing in blue jeans and T-shirts (or team jerseys), sitting behind the team bench and shouting at the referees. There's no skybox at Reunion Arena for Mark Cuban, and wikipedia.org estimates that he has paid $1,665,000 in fines to league offices, which distresses Cuban to such an extent that he gives matching money to charity.

Mark Cuban sure seems to enjoy life more than your average stuffy billionaire, even though a coveted NBA championship has eluded the Dallas Mavericks, and they got knocked out of last spring's playoffs in the first round. At least they are making the playoffs, which was not true eight years ago before he obtained the franchise for $285 million from H. Ross Perot Jr.
What can you say about a guy who once complained that the league's manager of officials (Ed T. Rush) was so lousy, he "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen?" The Dairy Queen folks were either truly offended and/or saw a chance for publicity, and so Mark Cuban managed a Dairy Queen for a day.

In this mamma.com case, it seems Cuban may be in line for a stiff civil fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission. If the SEC follows through, the NBA may have to wait in line.