Mavericks owner files a lawsuit against SEC for its improper suing him

The Securities and Exchange Commission is sued by Mark Cuban for access to documents detailing the insider trading case against the Dallas Mavericks owner, as reported by the Associated Press. Earlier SEC launched a civil action against Cuban, accusing him of selling shares of Internet search engine company Mamma.com after receiving confidential information about a private offering.

A lawsuit filed by Cuban on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington says that the SEC improperly rejected some requests, didn't respond quickly enough to appeals of rejections and failed to conduct adequate searches for some records.

Cuban’s filing alleges that he sought records of investigations involving Copernic Inc., the name for Mamma.com established two years ago, and an array of current and former Cuban enterprises, including the Mavericks, HDNet and Broadcast.com Inc. The SEC in turn missed deadlines to respond to appeals of several rejected requests, leaving Cuban no choice but to sue.

The lawsuit further reports that the SEC provided no distinct explanation as to the reasons of its rejecting many of the requests. The lawsuit was filed by Cuban two days after he appeared in federal court for a hearing on his motion to have the case dismissed. The hearing allowed attorneys to articulate arguments previously stated in motions and briefs since the suit's filing in November.

According to the SEC’s allegations Cuban evaded 750,000 loss by selling his 600,000 shares, which represented a 6.3-percent stake in Mamma.com, after executives told him of plans for a private offering. In this regard a group of lawyers defending Cuban says that those facts are not true and even if they are Cuban didn't engage in insider trading because he wasn't legally an "insider”, they say.