Mark Cuban trial goes to jury

(UPI) -- The insider-trading case against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went to jury Wednesday and a verdict could come as soon as later Wednesday evening.

If convicted, the billionaire businessman faces a fine of up to $2.5 million.

The Security and Exchange Commission accused Cuban of avoiding more than $750,000 in losses by selling 600,000 shares of the Canadian search engine company Mamma.com in June 2004 on confidential information.

Prosecutors allege Mamma.com CEO Guy Faure warned Cuban the company was heading for a "private investments in public equities" deal, which often hurt stock prices. Faure testified that Cuban agreed to a confidential phone conversation just before dumping his shares, which amounted to 6 percent stake. Cuban denies having the conversation.

Lawyers for the defense have argued that the PIPE agreement was public knowledge, which would clear him of the insider trading charge. An SEC filing submitted by Mamma.com in March 2004, three months before the sale, said it was "available to anyone in the world."

The defense also argued a huge bump in trading volume on June 28, 2004, proved the word had already spread of the agreement, but prosecutors pointed to a Yahoo message board post sharing a rumor the SEC planned to drop charges in an unrelated investigation against Mamma.com.