Billionaire Mark Cuban Criticizes SEC For Double Standards
Mark Cuban, a famous billionaire investor, says that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Coinbase shows “the fundamental problem” with the SEC.
The owner of the Dallas Mavericks says that the SEC could have “easily” gone to Coinbase and laid out a plan to help it comply with securities rules. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US.
“Then if Coinbase or whoever didn’t comply, they sue over whatever legal disagreements they have. Instead, they do what they told one of my companies to do when we called, ‘Read these cases and get a lawyer to figure it out for you.’
That’s the fundamental problem of the SEC. They don’t want to help companies get to compliance, they want to challenge them to get to compliance.
They are full of lawyers. Lawyers want to litigate. If you had business people, more like the [Small Business Administration], there would be more compliance, fewer lawsuits and better investor education and protections. But if that happened, 2,000 SEC lawyers would be out of a job.”
Cuban says that the SEC does nothing about the fact that “thousands of financial scams happen every minute on Twitter.” The star of “Shark Tank” also wonders if the regulator is doing enough to protect buyers from over-the-counter (OTC) pink-sheet stocks.
On Monday, prices for all cryptocurrencies fell after word spread that the SEC had filed a lawsuit against the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. The regulator says the exchange broke rules about protecting investors and selling securities.
After filing a lawsuit against Binance, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase on Tuesday. The SEC says that Coinbase was an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agent.
Cuban also says that the SEC could do a better job of protecting clients from bad people if it built stronger relationships with companies that wanted to do the right thing.
“As it is, no one wants to talk to the SEC because no one trusts them for fear of being in the same situation as Coinbase finds itself. You get what you measure.”
