Sometimes the best holiday gift is having a lawsuit thrown out of court. That's what happened to billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks, who were cleared of fraud allegations related to their promotional relationship with Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency lender that spectacularly imploded in 2022.

How the Case Fell Apart

Investors had claimed Cuban and his NBA team misled them about Voyager Digital, painting the crypto lender as a legitimate investment when it was allegedly anything but. The lawsuit invoked state securities laws and consumer fraud statutes, arguing the Mavericks' sponsorship deal with Voyager amounted to promoting what plaintiffs called "an unregistered and unsustainable fraud."

On December 30, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman of the Southern District of Florida pulled the plug on the entire case. The reason? Plaintiffs couldn't establish "personal jurisdiction" over the defendants. In other words, they sued in the wrong place. Judge Altman's ruling was definitive: no do-overs allowed in his courtroom.

The Voyager Disaster

The backdrop here is the 2022 crypto meltdown. Voyager Digital declared bankruptcy after hitting a liquidity wall, eventually triggering enforcement actions against CEO Stephen Ehrlich. Investors weren't just mad at Cuban—they also sued the National Basketball Association itself, claiming losses totaling $4.2 billion tied to the league's connections with the crypto company.

Cuban has since stepped back from the Mavericks anyway, selling his majority stake in 2023. He now holds just 27% ownership in the team.