Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Politically Motivated, Envious SEC

When they aren't obsessed with porn, the SEC spends its time emailing each other pics of the high profile they are harassing. NyPo has the bizarre details:
In a federal court filing submitted yesterday in Dallas, Cuban's attorneys blasted the Wall Street watchdog's staff for passing around unflattering photos of their client and making snarky comments about him in the period leading up to their failed 2008 insider-trading case against him.

One of the photos shows Cuban smiling coyly as he cradles a pile of money. It was a promotional picture used for a 2004 reality series called "The Benefactor" in which Cuban gives someone $1 million.

Two more pictures show the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks basketball team screaming at what are presumably Mavericks' games. Another photo comes with a caption referencing Cuban paying $40 million for a Gulfstream V jet in 1999, an act that landed him in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's largest e-commerce transaction.

"Now I feel fully informed," said one SEC official who received the montage in an e-mail. "The picture with the money is particularly helpful and certainly speaks a 1,000 words (if not more)."

"Charming," said then-SEC enforcement director Linda Thomsen.

A source said the photos were e-mailed to make certain officials including Thomsen aware of Cuban's prominence
During this time it should be noted that Harry Markopolos was desperately trying to investigate Bernie Madoff, which the didn't. Instead, one of their agents married his niece.

And, of course, they don't go anywhere near investigating real insider trading.

What's most curious is that the SEC is holding back on releasing even more Cuban related documents. Here's NyPo again:
Cuban's lawyers attached these e-mails in a motion to prod the SEC into releasing more evidence to show it had it in for Cuban. The billionaire is asking the court to force the SEC to turn over even more documentation related to the dismissed case against him. Cuban is accusing the agency of wrongfully and maliciously going after him and is demanding that the agency pay his legal fees as compensation.

In December, a federal judge agreed to let Cuban's team conduct discovery to support their case, but the recent filing shows they aren't satisfied with what they got.

Despite requests and extensions from the court, the SEC produced "a mere 199 documents, many of which had already been produced by Mr. Cuban earlier in the litigation," Cuban's lawyers said in their latest filing.
What are they hiding?

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