Judge rejects proposed member of LightSquared auction committee

[Randall Webmail]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/24/us-lightsquared-bankruptcy-idUSBRE98N10G20130924


By Nick Brown                       Tue Sep 24, 2013 1:52pm EDT

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked a proposed appointee to a
committee to oversee the bankruptcy auction of broadband company
LightSquared LP, citing a conflict of interests, and admonished the
company for making the nomination.

Donna Alderman cannot be part of the committee because she could be seen
as having a bias against satellite television company Dish Network Corp,
which is seeking to acquire LightSquared's spectrum, U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Shelley Chapman said.

Alderman, a former director at satellite operator DBSD, lost her job
when Dish acquired DBSD in 2011, then unsuccessfully sought $7 million
from Dish for her role in generating value for DBSD's estate.  She ended
up with $750,000 in severance.

LightSquared's creditors objected to Alderman's appointment on Monday,
citing her bitterness toward Dish.

At a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Tuesday,
Chapman lambasted the proposed appointment, saying Alderman could be
perceived as having an anti-Dish bias.

"Let's cut to the chase," Chapman told a lawyer for LightSquared. "You
had a list of a dozen candidates.  And yet we have someone who has
caused, with all due respect, a tremendous amount of controversy and
raised the specter of yet another sideshow.  Frankly, I don't understand
it."

A source with knowledge of the situation said Alderman and Dish had a
falling-out after DBSD was bought by Dish, and in emails reported by the
Wall Street Journal on Monday, Alderman said she felt "screwed" by Dish.
[SNIP]

(Reporting by Nick Brown; editing by Andrew Hay)