A quick guide to the Cuban-Perot lawsuit

So apparently, Mark Cuban’s legal troubles aren’t over.

Right after learning that his suit with the SEC had been dropped, Mark Cuban has been sued by a company controlled by Ross Perot, Jr., claiming the Mavs owner wrongfully diverted millions of AAC-related profits to fund the Mavs.

To read the full story from The Dallas Morning News and get all the details, click here.

Lots of legal jargon and seemingly complex terms, so let’s sort it all out.

• Mark Cuban currently owns 76% of the Mavs, making him the majority owner. Perot, called a “very minority” owner by Cuban in an e-mail to The Dallas Morning News, does still own part of the team. Cuban said his biggest mistake was not completely buying out Perot’s interest of the team.
• The lawsuit: Perot’s company, Hillwood Center Partners, said Mark Cuban has used profits from a company he controls (Radical Arena, Ltd.) to help fund the Mavs.
• Perot’s company says the profits from that company should have been redistributed to the partners.
• Cuban owns 92.5% of Radical Arena while Hillwood owns the rest.
• Radical Arena owns around one-third of Center Operating Co., whose ownership is split evenly between Mark Cuban’s Mavs and Tom Hicks’ Stars.
• Hicks is not involved in any way.
• The complaint says Radical Arena’s loans to the Mavs total more than $29 million with an interest rate of 3.5% – a very low rate.
• Cuban guesses that the total amount of interest owed to Perot is somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million.

So why is Perot lodging this complaint against Cuban? His company can only gain the 7.5% of the $29 mil + interest. The other 92.5%? It goes back to Cuban.

Cuban, in the DMN article, compared this lawsuit to Perot “trying to find nickels in the sofa cushion.”

Take that for whatever it’s worth, but I’ve got a feeling this lawsuit is going to fade away just as quickly as the last one did.

Cuban pic: http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/2007/11/mark_cuban_dives_into_the_mixe.html