Billionaire Mark Cuban was found not guilty of insider trading by a Texas jury for the sale of stock in an Internet company back in 2004. Cuban is estimated to be worth USD2.5 billion and is the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

He was accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of using non-public information for trading when he divested 600,000 shares he owned in the Canadian Internet search company Mamma.com. The said shares were worth USD7.9 million and he had avoided a USD750,000 loss as a result of the alleged misused information.

The jury deliberated for less than four hours before finding the dot com success stories innocent of the charge of insider trading. The jury found that the SEC failed to prove a number of elements of the case, such as Cuban trading using non-public information.

Cuban nodded and smiled as the verdict was read. Outside the court, he criticized SEC lawyer Jan Folena, saying the lawyer had tried to bully him. He told reporters, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I'm glad  could stand up to them."

As for the SEC, spokesman John Nester said, "We respect the jury's decision. While the verdict in this particular case is not the one we sought, I will not deter us from bringing and trying cases where we believe defendant have violated the federal securities laws."