EchoStar's Dish Agrees to Pay $17.3M in DOJ Settlement Over FCC Fraud Claims
By Elias Schisgall
Dish Wireless will pay $17.3 million to resolve allegations by the Justice Department that the company wrongly received federal funds from two Federal Communications Commission programs.
The case centered on two programs created to provide discount broadband services for low-income consumers. Dish's Boost Mobile division and its employees wrongly enrolled subscribers into the programs between May 2021 and February 2022, the DOJ said Wednesday.
The company, owned by EchoStar, enrolled more than 130,000 subscribers into the programs based on their participation in a free school breakfast and lunch program. Dish continued to receive monthly federal payments through the programs despite many of those subscribers being ineligible, the DOJ said.
The FCC's programs are the Emergency Broadband Benefits Program, created by Congress during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a successor program known as the Affordable Connectivity Program. The programs received $17.2 billion in federal funds from 2021 through 2024.
The DOJ alleged that Dish did not adequately assess whether its subscribers were eligible for the programs and directed third-party sales agents to submit inaccurate applications. Executives at the company learned of issues around enrollments but failed to take corrective action between September 2021 and April 2022, the DOJ said.
"DISH continued seeking FCC program funds for months after its executives learned about its agents' enrollment fraud and after an FCC OIG advisory warning," FCC Inspector General Fara Damelin said. "FCC OIG is committed to holding accountable bad actors who misuse taxpayers funds."
An EchoStar spokesperson said that the company administered the EBB program in good faith and relied upon government systems to determine eligibility.
"Throughout the program's duration, we cooperated with government inquiries and proactively instituted process improvements to address gaps and potential abuse by third-party retailers," the spokesperson said. "While we deny any wrongdoing and do not admit fault, we have agreed to this settlement in the interest of moving forward and putting this legacy matter behind us."
The settlement also resolves an administrative order by the FCC against Dish addressing similar allegations.
Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2026 12:17 ET (16:17 GMT)
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