Satellite-TV mogul Charlie Ergen was called on the carpet Friday for storming out of a court-ordered mediation session before it was over.
The chairman and founder of Dish Networks ditched the last of three mediation sessions intended to wrap up restructuring talks for bankrupt wireless startup LightSquared, in which Ergen owns a significant stake.
Ergen walked out of the session — the only one he attended — “without my permission,” Manhattan bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who serves as the court-appointed mediator, wrote in a court filing.
Drain said he told Ergen’s lawyer that he would continue the mediation session without the Dish founder on the condition that Ergen would agree to a proposal to help wrap up the negotiations by the next day.
But the next day came and went without “such proposal,” Drain complained to Shelley Chapman, the bankruptcy judge overseeing the LightSquared restructuring.
Ergen “wasted the parties and the mediator’s time and resources,” Drain wrote, adding that Ergen was not participating in negotiations “in good faith.”
All of LightSquared’s other investors, including billionaire hedge-fund manager Phil Falcone, have cooperated with the mediation, according to Drain, and have now “agreed on the key business terms of a Chapter 11 plan”
that Drain suggested Judge Chapman approve — with or without Ergen’s consent. Drain didn’t disclose the details of the proposed restructuring.
Falcone, whose Harbinger Group is LightSquared’s largest shareholder, has been battling with Ergen since he emerged as a major investor last year. Falcone has accused Ergen of pushing the company into bankruptcy so Dish could buy its spectrum on the cheap.