Perot sues Mark Cuban over money shuffling

DALLAS, July 21 (UPI) -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban allegedly moved $50 million from a Dallas arena to make up for his team's shortfalls, Ross Perot Jr. alleges in a lawsuit.

Cuban -- who beat an insider-trading charge from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week -- should have instead shared that money between the arena's partners, including Perot's Hillwood Center Partners, Hillwood alleges in the lawsuit filed in state district court in Dallas.

Cuban, in return, accuses Perot of being a "desperate" man from recent financial setbacks who's "trying to find nickels in the sofa cushion."

The lawsuit focuses on a Cuban-controlled company called Radical Arena Ltd., which owns about a third of the American Airlines Center's operating company.

Cuban controls 92.5 percent of Radical Arena and Hillwood owns 7.5 percent, the lawsuit says.

Beginning with $20 million in 2006, the lawsuit alleges, Cuban lent money from Radical Arena to the Mavericks that should have gone to the partners.

Cuban allegedly moved a total of $50 million from a Dallas arena to make up for his team's shortfalls, the lawsuit alleges.

Hillwood says it has demanded the money be distributed to the partners but Cuban has refused, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Cuban said in an e-mail to the News that his lawyers were "open with our minority partners, and in Mr. Perot's case, very minority, about the loans to the Mavericks."

He said his understanding was that the "total aggregate amount" of Perot's interest was $3 million, the News said.

The Mavericks professional basketball team has lost money on an operating basis for eight of the nine years Cuban has owned it, Forbes magazine reported.