The New York Post reports that Mark Cuban, the eccentric but affable owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has been charged with insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agency charged that Cuban dumped shares of Mamma.com after he found out it was going to raise funds using a type of private offering that often depresses a company's shares.  The SEC suit alleges that Cuban's insider trading saved him from over $750,000 in losses.

Cuban's attorney said in a statement that the SEC's case "has no merit and is a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

Mark Cuban issued a written statement in response to the charges saying, "I am disappointed that the (SEC) chose to bring this case based upon its enforcement staff's win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff's process was result-oriented, facts be damned.  The government's claims are false and they will be proven to be so."

The SEC filed the charges in a federal court in Dallas, and is seeking to impose fines and confiscate gains from the trades in 2004, the agency said in a statement.   According to the complaint, Cuban found out about the private investment when he was invited to take part in it. Mamma.com's CEO purportedly made a phone call to Cuban to discuss the potential investment, and prefaced the conversation by saying the information was confidential.

The conversation upset and angered Cuban, who concluded the phone call by saying, "Well, now I'm screwed. I can't sell," according to the complaint, at which time he hung up.

After a follow-up call with a representative from the investment bank handling the offering, Cuban then called his broker on June 28 and said, "Sell what you can tonight and just get me out the next day," the complaint said.  Cuban's broker sold 10,000 of his shares in Mamma.com that night in after-hours trading.  The next day his broker went about selling his remaining 590,000 shares.  Cuban's liquidated holdings accounted for roughly 6% of the company's stock.  At 6 p.m. on June 29, Mamma.com announced its private equity deal. On June 30, the stock tumbled.