Does that really matter anymore? U.S. prisons are <b>full</b> of harmless and victimless 'criminals'. It's not like society desperately needed to be protected from Tommy Chong.
His ego got the best of him. The CEO tried to trap him by telling him of the impending dilution, thinking that Cuban would be trapped by Insider Trading laws. Cuban says, "FU, you cant play me like that, I'll show you!! I'm Mark F-ing Cuban. I am above it all."
nothing will happen to Cuban. He will come out ahead on this. Book deal, tv show, and tons of traffic to his blog. Slap on wrist.
So. You actually believe this? That since he got fined 500k by the NBA, profited on a trade at the amount of $750K, and he is worth $2 Billion he can't be found guilty in a court of law? How do you come up with this stuff?
Imo. that is what I believe he was thinking. I wouldn't go as far as to say he thought he was "above it all" money wasn't the point anymore because he was screwed one way or another.
Martha Stewart was on the board of directors of the NYSE when she did her thingy, no way can she claim ignorance... funny thing was that I looked at the chart of the stock she sold and basically, using TA that I used at that time, I would have been selling it about that time too.... and she was not convicted of insider trading, it was about stonewalling the FED's...
IMO insider trading shouldn't be a crime for anyone who is not a company employee. Employees have a fiduciary duty to all shareholders, therefore giving a few shareholders an advantage is breaking their duty to the other shareholders and thus immoral/criminal. However, someone who does not work at the company IMO has no moral duty not to trade on any information they may find out. One has to ask, whose rights are they violating by trading on insider info? No buyer of stock has a right not to be trading against a more informed counterparty. I've yet to hear a convincing argument that anyone has a moral obligation to disclose informational advantages they may possess about a stock. "Insider trading" happens all the time in the commodity and forex markets and is perfectly legal (because there are no shareholders of commodities or currency). It makes the market price more efficient, people still play those markets. So there is no utilitarian argument against insider trading. For these reasons, IMO Cuban did nothing morally wrong. However, if the allegations are true then he did knowingly break the law. In any law-bound society, there has to be some punishment for breaking the law. But in the case of an illegal but not immoral action, the penalty should always be light, such as a fine, community service, reputational damage of a conviction - not jail time. Cuban should simply be ordered to disgorge his gains, maybe pay another 2 or 3 times that as punishment, then do 100 hours working in a charity shop or something. He may be a loudmouth champagne socialist asshole, and a sworn enemy of all traders; he may inspire envy in losers, but in a free country that is not a crime.