Mark Cuban has apparently devoted some time, like us, to reading the SEC IG's Semiannual Report to Congress over this holiday weekend. And he has some thoughts about it that he is very happy to share on his "blog maverick" blog. He writes:

It never crossed my mind that it would be legal for employees of the SEC to trade stocks. Not that they shouldn’t have rights to own whatever they want in a trust. They should. Trading individual stocks and bonds. Wow.

There is a SEC policy in place regarding trading and what employees can and can’t do according to this report, but if you know about actions of one company, even if you don’t trade that company, doesn’t that provide you insight into an entire industry ?

But wait there is more. According to this report,

”we have determined that the Commission’s current system in place to report the ownership and trading of securities is insufficient to prevent and detect insider trading on the part of Commission employees or violations of the Commission’s rules.

The OIG investigation has found that the reports that employees are required to file when they buy, sell or own securities are not meaningfully reviewed or sufficiently checked for conflicts of interest. Moreover, there is currently no system in place for the Commission to detect if an employee who has traded or owns a security failed to properly report such transaction. “

Double wow.

He highlights some other bits of dirty laundry in the report, and concludes that it is "no wonder they released it on the Friday after Thanksgiving without any press release to let people know its available…."

Read Cuban's post on "blog maverick"

Read the SEC IG's Semiannual Report to Congress