The jury had begun deliberations for the insider trading case of  NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. This stems from a SEC complaint that the billionaire had sold his shareholdings to avoid a loss using non-public information to arrive at a decision to sell.

The shares, about 600,000 in number, were for an internet search company named Mamma.com Inc. Prosecutors argued that Cuban had sold off is shares after he learned from Mamma.com CEO Guy Faure that a private placement of shares would dilute his holding in the company. From there, the shares of the search company fell 9.3% the day after the offer was announced, which by that time Cuban had already sold off his interest.

The SEC is seeking to confiscate the gains made by Cuban as well as impose fines and penalties for the insider trading. In a closing statement, the lawyer for the SEC Jan Folena said, "Mr. Cuban knew about information that other investors didn't and he sold before losing a dime."

Cuban, whose personal wealth was estimated by Forbes.com at USD2.5 billion, made his fortune by selling his company Broadcast.com before the dot com crash to Yahoo for USD5.7 billion. He maintains he did no wrong when he sold off his shares in the company.