Spectrum Five License Petition Was Fraudulently Dismissed, D.C. Circuit Told
The person who told the FCC that direct broadcast satellite wholesale services provider Spectrum Five was dropping its complaint against Intelsat had no right or authority to do so, Spectrum Five lender BIU told the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
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the D.C. Circuit in a petition for review last week (docket 23-1163). BIU said it's FCC precedent to take back actions that were initiated by a party lacking proper authority, and the unauthorized withdrawal of the petition "amounts to a fraud on the Commission itself." Spectrum Five's 2020 petition, which it withdrew in April (see 2304130048), sought revocation of the Intelsat 30 and Intelsat 31 satellite licenses for willful violations of license terms. BIU said it received no response to a June 9 letter to the Enforcement Bureau asking that 2020 petition be reinstated. In that letter, BIU said the withdrawal of the 2020 petition and the subsequent bureau order dismissing the petition "were procured by fraud." It said the person representing himself as a senior officer of Spectrum Five had given BIU sole authority to withdraw the petition. In withdrawing the petition himself, BIU said, "we ... must assume that he was compensated by a party-in-interest in the proceeding to do so -- that is, he was bribed." Our calls to an Austin number for Spectrum Five weren't answered. The FCC didn't comment.