Last week, it appeared that Mark Cuban's greatest current challenge was going to be convincing baseball's owners to let him buy the Cubs.

Today that seems like the least of his problems because news just broke that Cuban has been charged with insider trading by possibly the only group with a lower sense of humor than MLB's braintrust — the SEC.  

From WSJ.com:

"The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, for allegedly dumping shares in Mamma.com upon learning it was raising money in a private offering.

"The SEC alleges in a civil action that Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in a public entity, or PIPE. The next day, on June 29, the company announced the PIPE financing and shares of the company dropped by more than 10%. By selling his stake, the SEC alleges, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses."

It's obviously still too early to tell how this will ultimately impact Cuban's bid for the Cubs or even his possible interest in acquiring Stephon Marbury for his Mavericks. Still, it's hard to believe that someone facing such serious charges and possible jail time (Hi Martha!) would be able to pull together a $1.3 billion bid for the Cubs and Wrigley Field. Because Sam Zell is now saying he'd like to have the Cubs sold by year's end, this could very well be the final knockout blow for all of our Cuban-with-the-Cubs dreams.