DISH allegations of fraud in FCC auction face Biden DOJ dismissal request
The Justice Department has an opportunity to address allegations of similar fraud in the spectrum auction conducted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015. In that auction, DISH allegedly created two fake entities to take advantage of a 25% discount on spectrum licenses—a discount reserved for very small businesses to enter the wireless market against larger, established competitors. DISH allegedly created these fake entities to get discounted spectrum that the multi-billion dollar conglomerate was not entitled to under FCC rules. Evidence shows that the fraudulent DISH organizations won licenses worth $13.3 billion, but only paid three-quarters of that because of the false discount.
These alleged fraudulent practices are the subject of a complaint filed by Vermont National Telephone Company under the False Claims Act, seeking federal damages caused by DISH and the alleged fraud. Under the Trump Administration, the DOJ and FCC filed a statement expressing the government’s interest in the case. The DC Circuit also found that Vermont National had sufficiently alleged a cause of action under the False Claims Act, and the case remained at trial.
Merrick Garland served as Attorney General under President Biden. (Fox News Channel / Fox News)
With weeks to go before the discovery was closed, Biden’s Justice Department had an inexplicable change of heart, advising the government to seek a dismissal of the Vermont National case. Not coincidentally, the DOJ first announced its intention to seek dismissal less than a month after Charlie Ergen, CEO of DISH, and his wife collectively contributed more than $100,000 to President Biden’s re-election efforts and days after the Biden Administration gave DISH a $50 million grant.
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Allowing Vermont National’s False Claims Act lawsuit to be dismissed after nearly a decade would reward, to put it another way, Sen. Chuck Grassley, “the rottenness of the Biden/Garland DOJ,” who equipped the DOJ to punish its enemies and benefit its supporters. The dismissal of the Vermont National case will also discourage whistleblowers from pursuing similar fraud allegations in the future.
Allowing Vermont National’s case to move forward would be consistent with President Trump’s administration’s efforts to crack down on fraud in government programs. It would hold DISH accountable for alleged FCC auction fraud and could add billions of dollars to the coffers of the US Treasury.
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