“The jury wanted to believe him,” he said. “I think they started out wanting to believe him.”
Like Slotnick, Melsheimer contrasted his client’s testimony with the Faure recording, which he called a “major weakness” in the government’s case.
‘Alleged Victim’
“He’s the alleged victim to the fraud,” Melsheimer said. “If there was a fraud committed, it was committed against Guy Faure.”
While it may have been true that the SEC couldn’t compel Faure to testify, he could have come from Canada voluntarily, Melsheimer said.
“You would think that someone who’s the victim of a fraud would want to show up and testify and get redress for their injury,” he said.
At trial, Cuban’s lawyers presented evidence of a spike in trading volume that they said supported a claim the pending PIPE transaction was already known to investors. Citing that evidence, Cuban’s final witness, Erik Sirri, a former SEC official, said he believed the information was public before Cuban traded.
The share volume evidence was “a fairly clever way to give the jury a way to hang their hat on something,” Bourelly said.
“If you like the guy and want to find a way to see his side of the story, he gives you ample evidence to do it,” Bourelly said of Cuban.
SEC’s Case