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Mark Cuban Won't Back Down

The Billionaire Entrepreneur on His Battles With the SEC, the Success of the Dallas Mavericks and the Lessons of 'Shark Tank'

Mark Cuban ENLARGE
Mark Cuban Justin Clemons for The Wall Street Journal



















Write to Alexandra Wolfe at

Rob Lawton
Rob Lawton subscriber

Mark is a bit abrasive, but ya gotta love his guts and the results speak for themselves. He plays a bit of a dangerous game by going so public, but the transparency and publicity of it all is a bit of an insurance policy too. But there is a chance that the Feds could make him an example to others like they did with Martha Stewart. They could wait for him to screw up somewhere else like silent wolves in the forest too. They may be hoping that this larger than life personality has a flaw they can exploit.

Obummercare is a lost cause though. I get it that Mark perhaps does not want to offend many players on his team who are Obamaites, but it's a bit much for those of us who must suffer through this ordeal to embrace policies carried out by The Great One.

As for NK, I admire the guy's "can do" energy, but NK is absolutely INSANE and devious beyond belief. I really don't like it when an insane nuclear rogue country and the possibility of WWIII are in the hands of a Rodman or a Mark Cuban.

Tom Byrnes
Tom Byrnes subscriber

For an Entrepreneur, Cuban is strangely ignorant of the simple thing a startup can do to handle ALL it's HR, including getting big-company discounts on insurance: use a Professional Employer Organization (Like Administaff or TriNET).
Private industry already solved the problem that Obamacare is now making even bigger.

Don Hansen
Don Hansen subscriber

"Nothing changes if no one does anything."

Rodman called Kim Jung Un a "friend for life." How is that even an attempt to change anything? And since then, Kim executed his uncle, who Kim worried was in favor of republicanism, and might be a challenge to his power as a leader.

What Rodman did was make Kim more self-confident of himself. He's considered a pariah amongst decent civilization, for good reason. Rodman took his celebrity and basically said he was a good man.

As for The Affordable [sic] Care [sic] Act, you've got to be kidding.

I think a lot of people who find fame and fortune in one area of life, falsely presume they are wise about all of life. Then they tell everyone their ideas about things they are quite immature about, and end up looking like fools. Hollywood actors and actresses do that often.

Mike Tracy
Mike Tracy subscriber

What would he replace the SEC's attorneys with? Liberal arts grads?

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe before the ACA no business had any obligation to provide health care.

And finally, I don't think if you look-up the term "deep thinker" you will find a picture of Mark Cuban

Richard Rosso
Richard Rosso subscriber

Love him. Bloated, corporate attorneys need to be exposed, too.

MOSSAB OTMAN BASIR subscriberprofilePrivate

Cuban is a stand up guy.

He invests in entrepreneurs, he's a big time believer and proponent of paying taxes as the most patriotic thing you can do and now he's giving people a vehicle to put the government in check. These things encompass the spirit of American prosperity.

The government is not almighty and it's practices certainly deserve to be 'checked', so if this new venture puts even a smidgen of pressure on government agencies such as the SEC to do their job more diligently, I'd say it's a step in the right direction.

It always amazes me how hard people are on him as if he should be subject to a more rigid, and infinitely higher standard because he is a (self-made) billionaire. Give the guy a break, he's human and he's sometimes flawed and he may be loud but he's not selling anything and he's not 'going head to head with the SEC'. He's using his size to present some healthy resistance and scrutiny to a body which most of us are too small, and too scared to go up against.

This is government accountability. Power to you brother. There's plenty of us that support you and would love to help however possible to activate this initiative (and hopefully more like it).

Mark Panioto
Mark Panioto subscriber

The SEC investigations follow the states AG business model of shaking down business for their "cut". It is nothing but extortion, from the most powerful organized crime syndicate in existence, the Government.

Elliott Widaski
Elliott Widaski subscriber

"One initiative that Mr. Cuban says he thinks will help enable entrepreneurship is Obamacare."


As they say, "You can't fix stupid."

Anyone would have to tip his hat to Mark for his successes, but that doesn't qualify him as a genius in public policy. Obamacare is the result of big insurance companies and re-insurance (think Buffet) thinking there was a honey pot of uninsured who can be dumped on the tax payers. Business and corporations love the thought of getting insurance off their balance sheets and making it another government deficit. The merging of insurance and the IRS, the two most powerful entities on earth....they will surely run the world together.

Andrew Esposito
Andrew Esposito user

Cuban has been pro-Obama since day one. Money and fundraisers.

Robert Bishop
Robert Bishop subscriberprofilePrivate

He sounded like a intelligent guy until he spoke about Obama Care. If he thinks the SEC is messed up wait until he sees what the government does to health care. As Reagan said " government is not the solution - it is the problem"

Al Stevers
Al Stevers subscriber

Well you do have to admire Cuban's timing in selling to Yahoo for $5.7billion when the company's stock was dropping and it was only worth a tenth of what Yahoo paid for it. And good for him for having the B@lls to stand up to the SEC. However, I think he needs to rethink his position on Obamacare as he is way off in his understanding of how it's negatively effecting small business.

Michael Heckner
Michael Heckner subscriber

It is interesting that Mr. Cuban is in favor of government run health care to free up capital, while he opted to not have insurance to put funds elsewhere in his endeavors. Mr. Cuban is astute enough to understand that requiring all to participate costs the entrepreneur upfront capital just like any other tax (right?). Nothing government runs, operates or intrudes upon frees up financial resources of the business. The article would have been sufficient only covering Mr. Cuban's SEC victory.

David Hosmer
David Hosmer subscriber


I think Mr. Cuban and I see the government the same, a bunch of bureaucrats getting wealthy off the system. Until this problem is addressed, everything else has little significance. We are gradually evolving into a class system where employees who work for the government are the privileged class, and the majority who work in the private sector the undesirables, who are exploited by the privileged class to meet their needs.

Tom Topar
Tom Topar subscriber

"Nothing changes if no one does anything" Well I can honestly say that was one of the stupidest statements I ever heard. It amazes me that some very successful people are so shallow as to believe change is always good. The fact is it is mostly not good. People have a basically defined life span and most plan ahead to fulfill their lives. Changing rules in the middle of the game helps a few at a great cost to many. The best thing government can ever do is get smaller and out of business.

Gervaise Mourlet
Gervaise Mourlet subscriber

Mark, shut up already. If your trial wasn't in Texas (no favoritism there!) and the SEC's star witness wasn't intimidated by you and testified, you would have been found guilty. I used to like you, now you are like a little child who is guilty, got away with it, and has to rub it in because he is all excited. Quit while you are ahead.

Patrick Plemmons
Patrick Plemmons subscriber

Yes, Mark, "you have freed up money and time" for small businesses and at the same time you have destroyed the American healthcare industry and guaranteed that all Americans will now have substandard care. Maybe you should familiarize yourself with the law before you publicly opine on it. Your brand just took a major hit.

Jesse Cox
Jesse Cox subscriber

I commend Mr Cuban for taking on the government and winning. And i agree that "sunshine is the best disinfectant". But his views on ObamaCare are off. If the SEC can do and say whatever it feels then no citizen can feel good about a government that controls one-sixth of the economy.

Blaine Sundwall
Blaine Sundwall subscriber

' the finest traditions of government counsel ' . That's a low bar to get over. Maybe they should act within the law and with integrity instead.

Diane Simmons
Diane Simmons

I don't think Mark is 100% right all the time (heck, I don't even think I'm 100% right all the time), but he is right more times than he is wrong by a mile. I would be in support of almost any political campaign he leads as his view of what needs to happen in this country is far clearer than anyone actually "leading" it.

John Aiton
John Aiton subscriber

Mark lost me at ObamaCare. Glad it was at the bottom of the page.

Frank Anderson
Frank Anderson subscriber

The difference between guilt and innocence in the banana republic court system is $$$$$$$$$$.

John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin subscriber

Keep Telling it like it is big guy - broken finger or not...My MAN

Craig Conner
Craig Conner subscriber

what perplexes me is that he fought with the SEC and clearly understands how destructive an unaccountable government agency can be, and yet supports Obama-care. Its amazing that he believes the lies that Obamacare will bring down costs for small businesses.
He says he regrets making the decision to put his money back into his business instead of buying health care, but now believes that that freedom of choice should be taken away from others.
You need to reconsider this one Mark.

Gene Lebrenz
Gene Lebrenz subscriber

Mr. Cuban is absolutely correct with his analysis of the SEC my opinion, the vast majority of them are only there to build their own resumes and then move to a private firm to attempt to earn really big money. Right and wrong are irrelevant to those SEC litigators.

But, I don't think that Mr. Cuban has really thought through the economic externalities of Rodman's visit to NK, nor Cuban's comment that he's waiting for an invitation to visit that tyrannical murdering dictatorship. Any publicity regarding NK, due to outsiders visiting NK, are bound to adversely impact the majority of the citizens who are starving in NK. Rodman and Cuban should spend their efforts exposing the inhumanity imposed upon the people of NK by its barbarian rulers.

Larry Doyle
Larry Doyle subscriber

What Mr. Cuban is talking about is the fact that the SEC, FINRA, and our pols are all "In Bed with Wall Street".

My book by that very title will be published by Palgrave Macmillan and released on January 7th. A recent reviewer commented, ". . . the scandalous details he recounts are impressive . . . The author has clearly done his homework while thinking about a reform effort . . . An important book"

Fred Higgenbottom
Fred Higgenbottom userprofilePrivate

This guy was accused of stealing from shareholders using inside information and you love him?

Nicholas Chidiac
Nicholas Chidiac subscriber

I'm surprised that he doesn't recognize that the bureaucrats teeming around Obamacare probably have a lot in common with the SEC lawyers he interacted with.

Keith True
Keith True subscriber

What's up Peter "The Troll" Warren?! Taking a break from trying to enroll in the Dear Leader's ACA disaster to harass the productive? Back! Back! Into Your Cave!

Jack Blow
Jack Blow user

"but now believes that that freedom of choice should be taken away from others. "..

Nope, that's not what he states Craig, that's what you state.

Victor Myers
Victor Myers subscriber

Answer: Nobody. Bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government accountable to nobody.

Gervaise Mourlet
Gervaise Mourlet subscriber

Aww, did I hurt 'um's feelings? You are the most dangerous type of pseudo-intellectual, one who thinks he knows things he knows nothing about. You have no knowledge of the motivations of SEC lawyers and all your degrees won't change the simple fact that you were wrong, made to look the fool by a former government attorney (which, as a class, you obviously despise) as reflected in your final juvenile post. I do not need to tell you about my degrees and training, they are reflected in the way I reduced you to name-calling and personal attacks, just as I expected.

Gervaise Mourlet
Gervaise Mourlet subscriber

I doubt very much that your "research" qualifies you to make the sweeping, uninformed opinion that you made (there is no such research available that is worth anything; it would be far too subjective). Regarding Madoff, do some research on that one, he not only fooled the regulators but the auditors and others not affiliated with the government so blaming the government for that mess is ridiculous. Your jump from assuming that SEC lawyers are presumed to sacrifice their ethics for the sake of a bigger paycheck down the road to favoring "markets with minimal regulation" is a total non-sequitur.

Gervaise Mourlet
Gervaise Mourlet subscriber

You have no idea what you are talking about regarding SEC lawyers. I worked for the SEC and I was interested in the letter of law and doing what was right. You are no doubt projecting your own greed onto others. Don't do that, you sound foolish....

Craig Conner
Craig Conner subscriber

Obamacare requires everyone to buy insurance or pay a "tax". That is in affect taking away the freedom to choose. Mark may not have said it, but his support for Obamacare means that he agrees with taking away the freedom of choice.
Obamacare, all the efficiency of the BMV, all the compassion of the IRS.

Gene Lebrenz
Gene Lebrenz subscriber

Well, I'll end this conversation by suggesting that you think about the following:
Your apparent clerical employment background hardly qualifies you to know anything about the SEC's failure to follow-up on presumed fraud dumped into its lap. Contrary to your perfidious comments, I have three graduate degrees (all from nationally recognized and accredited major U. S. universities-- including a doctorate with exam fields in economics, securities analysis, and business). I have undertaken and reviewed extensive research in the fields. I also have trial testimony as an expert witness and teaching experience in graduate and undergraduate courses in finance and economics for more than 30 years.

So I'll just leave it at that and let you move on to other topics for which you may have a better background to discuss --such as office assistant duties. Happy New Year.

Gene Lebrenz
Gene Lebrenz subscriber

Actually, I have a fair amount of knowledge about the churning cabal of SEC prosecutors. For the most part, my research indicates that many of them attempt, like many other government regulators, to "bully" defendants--in their cases-- into settlements without trials.

Read the research to prevent sounding foolish. By the way, where was the SEC when all of the info regarding B. Mad- Off had been placed in their laps? Oh, that's right, they were too busy screwing the little guys who were easy to intimidate and extorting chicken manure victories from the "little guys" for embellishing their personal CV's to enable them to (hopefully) to move into the big money pits of litigation.

Sorry, but my "greed," as you call it, is limited to wanting free markets with minimal regulation--and then, only regulation that's essential to protecting the public. So, in this case, I'm going to go with the research, my graduate training, and my trial experiences.

My only objections to Cuban were his interest in visiting NK, and supporting the UNaffordable UNcaring Act.

As Victor stated below: " Bureaucracy is the fourth branch of government accountable to nobody."

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