I Like My Cuban With Egg

It is being reported today that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is being charged with insider trading.

For those of you whose knowledge of Wall Street is from watching The Daily Show, insider trading is when you sell or buy a stock based on information that is not available to the public. For example, if you are a majority stockholder of the company and the Chief Financial Officer tells you that the company does not have enough money to make payments to bond holders and this information will be announced tomorrow, and you sell your stock today, that is insider trading.

So when Mark Cuban got some bad news that wasn't announced to the public, he sold his shares of Copernic, Inc. and saved himself $750,000 in losses. Fortuntely for us honest guys, the SEC found out about it and is charging him.

Potential penalties for Mark Cuban could include the following:

• Expunging the money he didn't lose from the sale
• Ban from being able to buy and sell stocks
• Prison

and perhaps the 2 biggest penalties:

• 2 draft picks in the 2009 NBA lottery
• Ban from any reappearance on Dancing With The Stars.

The SEC does not mess around!