SEC 'victim' Mark Cuban speaks out to help guy who's being sued in Georgia

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is crusading against the Securities and Exchange Commission, two years after he prevailed in an insider trading case he maintains should never have been filed.

On Tuesday, Cuban's lawyers filed a motion in a federal appeals court in which he asked the court for permission to file a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of an Atlanta real estate developer accused of insider trading.

In the case involving real estatate developer Charles Hill, the SEC appealed a judge's order finding the agency's use of an "in-house" SEC judge rather than an independent judge was "likely unconstitutional," as The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Cuban agrees that the use of in-house SEC judges is wrong.

"As a first-hand witness to and victim of SEC overreach, Mr. Cuban has an interest in responding to and opposing the SEC's appeal in this case," Cuban's motion stated.

Here's more on Cuban's interest in the case, per his brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals:

As a businessman who has born the full brunt of misguided SEC enforcement litigation, Mr. Cuban offers a front-row perspective on the SEC's arguments that Mr. Hill suffers no irreparable harm from being forced to undergo a hearing before a defectively constituted tribunal, and that enjoining that hearing harms the public interest.

Had Mr. Cuban been subjected to the treatment the SEC intends for Mr. Hill, without the procedural safeguards available in federal district court, Mr. Cuban likely would have been found liable by an in-house SEC judge on a legal theory that was found by a federal court of appeals to be unsound.

Back in October 2013, a jury in a federal district court deliberated for only a few hours before finding Cuban not liable for insider trading.

Cuban had been accused of ditching stock in a metasearch internet company called Mamma.com in 2004 after he supposedly got an inside tip on an upcoming offering that would have diluted his shares.

While the SEC ends up settling most of its insider trading cases, Cuban fought the case in court even though he said his attorney fees ended up costing him more than a settlement would have. He wanted to prove the case against him was unwarranted.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I'm glad I could stand up to them," Cuban said at the time, according to Reuters.

Apparently, Cuban will continue standing up to the agency in cases brought against others, as well.