The men helping satellite mogul Charlie Ergen snap up a controlling debt position in wireless start-up LightSquared seemed to want the world to think billionaire Carlos Slim was behind the deals.
In a November 2012 e-mail about the progressing debt purchases, Dish Treasurer Jason Kiser told Stephen Ketchum, the hedge-fund manager executing the trades, “btw, you’ll continue to get looks … you’re Carlos Slims’ main man.”
The e-mail came up during Ketchum’s testimony Wednesday in Manhattan Bankruptcy Court over whether Dish founder Ergen, who was actually behind the debt buys, acted improperly.
LightSquared forbade strategic buyers like Dish from owning the debt, and current LightSquared front man, billionaire Phil Falcone, has accused Ergen of buying the debt on the sly to win LightSquared’s spectrum for Dish.
Indeed, Dish proposed buying some of LightSquared’s spectrum last summer for $2.2 billion, but the television provider dropped its bid last week as the trial was getting started over the legitimacy of Ergen’s $800 million debt position.
If he loses the trial, Ergen could find himself getting pushed to the back of the line when it comes to recoveries.
On Monday, Ergen testified that he hid his debt buys to maintain his privacy and keep the price down. But on Wednesday, lawyers for LightSquared suggested that at least one of Ergen’s hired hands also considered fibbing about Ergen’s involvement in the debt.
Another e-mail that cropped up Wednesday was from The Post to Ketchum seeking comment on a story the paper was planning to run in May 2012, revealing that Ergen was behind the purchases by SoundPoint Capital, Ketchum’s hedge fund.
Ketchum forwarded the e-mail to Kiser, saying, “we should discuss whether we should both employ a more strenuous strategy around denial.”
“Were you trying to mislead people … that this had nothing to do with Charlie Ergen?”” LightSquared lawyery Michael Hirshfeld asked Ketchum.
“I don’t recall,” Ketchum said.
E-mails filed with the court suggest that Falcone bought into rumors that Slim was behind the debt purchases well into 2013.
“If I were a betting man, I would say that SoundPoint is Slim,” Falcone wrote in May 2013. “I received a phone call today from the Salinas family … the arch enemy of Slim in Mexico,” the e-mail read.
Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital is currently the majority equity owner in LightSquared, is scheduled to take the witness stand as early as Wednesday afternoon.