Mark Cuban Accuses Plaintiffs Suing Him of ‘Forum Shopping and Gamesmanship’

“Shark Tank” investor Mark Cuban filed a motion arguing the Voyager class-action lawsuit in which he was accused of promoting a “Ponzi scheme” should be moved from Florida to Texas.

The transfer of venue declarations were made by Sigmund Wissner-Gross, a partner at Brown Rudnick and counsel to Cuban and his team, along with Mavericks employee Ryan Mackey.

A court filing released Tuesday doesn’t include the full details regarding their intent to move the case, as Cuban and the Mavericks have asked the court to file their motion under seal, a procedure allowing the defendants to keep contents hidden so that the information in them doesn’t become public record.

Confidential information, such as the plaintiffs’ Voyager account information, their addresses and the last four digits of their social security numbers, were redacted in the filings.

Wissner-Gross’ declaration also included excerpts from Voyager’s agreement with Dallas Basketball, which they want to be kept private because of a confidentiality clause that prohibits its public distribution.

Voyager investors put forward allegations against Cuban and CEO Steve Ehrlich last year, saying they personally reached out to potential customers to convince them into putting money into the “deceptive platform.” His NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, was also named as a defendant in the suit. 

They “went to great lengths to use their experience as investors to dupe millions of Americans into investing,” the complaint said.

Cuban has now said that the investor plaintiffs engaged in “transparent forum shopping and gamesmanship,” according to Law360.

Blockworks has reached out to Cuban and attorney Wissner-Gross for comment.

Cuban is scheduled to be deposed as part of the lawsuit on Feb. 2 in Dallas, Texas. Mackey and Kyle Tapply, team executives for corporate partnerships at the Mavericks, are also set to be deposed before Feb. 23.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July after suffering massive losses from its exposure to crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, with Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research listed as its biggest creditor.

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