Updated 3:29 p.m.: The Mark Cuban insider-trading case has just become very strange very quickly.

Hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it was charging the voluble owner of the Dallas Mavericks with illegally trading on confidential information related to Mamma.com, a search engine company, Mr. Cuban fired off his own salvo. In a press release (and blog post), Mr. Cuban accused the S.E.C. of prosecutorial misconduct.

What did he mean, exactly? A person close to Mr. Cuban told DealBook that an S.E.C. employee had sent Mr. Cuban e-mails several times over the last year or so, accusing him of being unpatriotic. The bone of contention was Mr. Cuban’s involvement with “Loose Change,” a documentary that accuses the Bush administration of engineering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a pretext for the Iraq war.

Read one of the purported e-mails — which copies Christopher Cox, the S.E.C. chairman, and was obtained from this person — after the jump.

In a statement, an S.E.C. spokesman told DealBook that the insider-trading investigation was run out of the commission’s Washington headquarters. Mr. Norris worked out of a regional office and had no role in or knowledge of the investigation. He was “referred for disciplinary action,” the spokesman said.

Furthermore, Mr. Cox did not correspond with Mr. Cuban and recused himself from the commission vote on whether to bring up charges.

From: Norris, Jeffrey B.
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 2:27 PM
To: Mark Cuban
Cc: Cox, Christopher

Subject: RE: “Lose Change”

I AM SHARING THIS WITH CHAIRMAN COX. NEITHER HE NOR THE COMMISSION ENDORSE MY OPINIONS, BUT IN LIGHT OF YOUR THREAT, I THOUGHT SHOULD SEND THIS TO HIM.

Mark:

If this upsets you, I wonder how George Bush feels. I assume that Mr. Cox would view your involvement with “Loose Change” much as I do. After all, he served his country as a Republican Congressman from Orange County for nearly 20 years and was appointed by President Bush. If you feel like sharing my thoughts with Chairman Cox, be my guest.

Previously, I thought you were merely foolish and naïve. Now, however, I see that you are also a hypocrite. I guess your belief in free speech has severe limitations. If someone else is the victim of an absurd conspiracy theory, you defend your right to participate in smearing the good name of of a patriot like President Bush. But, when you are the subject of a parody of the attack you have endorsed, you suddenly issue threats.

I think I will e-mail this to Chairman Cox myself. I think he will enjoy it. I’m sure he is also a Laker fan.

Since Chairman Cox may not know the background, I will explain. Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and has participated in distributing the vicious and absurd documentary, “Loose Change,” which posits that President Bush planned the demolition of the World Trade Center as a pretext for going to war against Iraq. We have had some past exchanges about my opinion the Mr. Cuban’s support for this project is irresponsible and immoral. Below, I parodied his position that every opinion, no matter how absurd and vicious, deserves to be broadly disseminated.

–Michael J. de la Merced

Original here