Cuban Blasts SEC, Insider Trading Should Be Handled by Justice Department

Mark Cuban has been vocal the past few days as the high frequency trading debate heats up. On Wednesday, Cuban published a blog blasting the SEC and their poor use of taxpayer dollars. Mary Jo White, the Chairwoman of the SEC, has used the HFT “firestorm” to ask for money funding for the government agency, Cuban said. Cuban is not surprised by the request, and feels “there is no greater waste of money than what the SEC spends trying to enforce insider trading laws.” Cuban recalls a case where Gary Griffiths, the chief mechanical officer at Florida East Coast Railway, and Cliff Steffes, trainmain at Bowden Rail Yard, noticed management was giving a surprising number of tours of the railyard to men in suits. The two workers guessed that good news was on the horizon and bought stock, and were right. The SEC sued the men for insider trading, and lost. Cuban asks, “how many millions of dollars of taxpayer money were wasted?” SEC versus Schvacho is also cited by Cuban in his blog. The famous entrepreneur went on to claim it is an “absolute fact...that investors do not care about insider trading and do not use it as a proxy for whether or not the markets are fair.” “Insider trading enforcement is [not] the way to increase confidence in the markets,” Cuban said. Cuban suggests the SEC leaves insider trading to the Justice Department.