The Mark Cuban Insider Trading story has just taken a turn towards bizarre, with new allegations that Cuban was targeted by the SEC for financing a 9/11 truther movie.
The NY Times quotes a person close to Cuban saying that an S.E.C. employee had sent Cuban e-mails several times over the last year or so, accusing him of being unpatriotic. “The bone of contention was Mr. Cuban’s involvement with “Loose Change,” a documentary that accuses the Bush administration of engineering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a pretext for the Iraq war.” Cuban accused the S.E.C. of “prosecutorial misconduct” in his press release responding to the Insider Trading allegations…and the suggestion it that this is what he was referring to.
An S.E.C. spokesman told the paper that the insider-trading investigation was run out of the commission’s Washington headquarters and that the person writing the emails worked out of a regional office and had no role in or knowledge of the investigation.
Here’s one of the emails sent to Cuban:
From: Norris, Jeffrey B. Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 2:27 PM To: Mark Cuban Cc: Cox, Christopher
Subject: RE: “Lose Change”
I AM SHARING THIS WITH CHAIRMAN COX. NEITHER HE NOR THE COMMISSION ENDORSE MY OPINIONS, BUT IN LIGHT OF YOUR THREAT, I THOUGHT SHOULD SEND THIS TO HIM.
Mark:
If this upsets you, I wonder how George Bush feels. I assume that Mr. Cox would view your involvement with “Loose Change” much as I do. After all, he served his country as a Republican Congressman from Orange County for nearly 20 years and was appointed by President Bush. If you feel like sharing my thoughts with Chairman Cox, be my guest.
Previously, I thought you were merely foolish and naïve. Now, however, I see that you are also a hypocrite. I guess your belief in free speech has severe limitations. If someone else is the victim of an absurd conspiracy theory, you defend your right to participate in smearing the good name of of a patriot like President Bush. But, when you are the subject of a parody of the attack you have endorsed, you suddenly issue threats.
I think I will e-mail this to Chairman Cox myself. I think he will enjoy it. I’m sure he is also a Laker fan.
Since Chairman Cox may not know the background, I will explain. Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and has participated in distributing the vicious and absurd documentary, “Loose Change,” which posits that President Bush planned the demolition of the World Trade Center as a pretext for going to war against Iraq. We have had some past exchanges about my opinion the Mr. Cuban’s support for this project is irresponsible and immoral. Below, I parodied his position that every opinion, no matter how absurd and vicious, deserves to be broadly disseminated.
For another interesting take on the Mark Cuban Insider Trading story, visit MakeYouGoMmm.com, who have dug through Cuban’s old posts relating to mamma.com
(via SAI)