Next month, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, is scheduled to give a deposition as part of the defense against a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that he endorsed a Ponzi scheme in the form of the now-defunct crypto lender Voyager Digital.
In the context of the law, giving a deposition means, in most cases, responding to a series of questions while under oath during the pre-trial discovery stage of a possible legal proceeding. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid issued an order on January 9 denying Cuban’s motion to split the deposition into two sessions.
Instead, the judge ruled that Mark Cuban’s full deposition will be taken on February 2 in Dallas, Texas. Before February 23, two workers of the Dallas Mavericks will testify in a deposition that is being taken as part of the defense. In addition, the judge stated that the case’s three plaintiffs, Pierce Robertson, Rachel Gold, and Sanford Gold, will each give a deposition prior to the end of this month.
Cuban’s Counsel Shares Official Remarks
The attorneys for the plaintiffs said on January 9 in an interview with the publication Law360, which covers legal news, that the judge had rejected Mark Cuban’s requests to suspend and postpone the discovery process.
A representative for Cuban’s legal team also spoke with Law360 and mentioned that the deposition of the plaintiffs will cover questions regarding standing, claimed false statements that were included in the complaint, and inquiries regarding the Voyager accounts that were owned by the plaintiffs.
They stated, “We have been litigating on behalf of hundreds of injured Voyager investors for more than a year and will finally be able to uncover evidence of what transpired, and fully understand to what extent Mr. Cuban, and his Dallas Mavericks, were involved in the ‘offering’ of these unregistered securities and to what extent he was to profit.”
The contested lawsuit was initially submitted on August 10, 2022. The plaintiffs argue that Cuban misrepresented Voyager multiple times before it went bankrupt, including false claims that it was cheaper than its competitors and that it offered trading services “commission-free.”
The lawsuit also asserts that the company issued unregistered securities and that Cuban and Stephen Ehrlich, the CEO of Voyager, used their technical expertise to convince less-informed investors to spend their life savings in what they now believe to be a “Ponzi scheme.”
On July 6, Voyager submitted their petition to reorganize their business under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code after struggling with liquidity challenges brought on by the crypto winter and a significant loan that was defaulted on by Three Arrows Capital. The company underlined that the move was part of a “Plan of Reorganization,” which it had been working on for some time.
