March 6 (Bloomberg) -- EchoStar Corp. technology unit chief Mark Jackson didn’t receive a degree from Texas Tech University, the school’s registrar said, contrary to the satellite company’s Web site. EchoStar said it was a clerical error.

Markus Wayne Jackson attended Texas Tech from September 1979 through May 1982 and majored in engineering, though there was “no degree awarded,” according to a statement faxed to Bloomberg News from the university registrar’s office.

EchoStar’s Web site said Jackson, president of EchoStar Technologies LLC, “earned his degree in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University,” without being more specific. The company, which sells satellite-television services and equipment, was spun off last year from Dish Network Corp., the second-largest U.S. satellite-TV provider.

Jackson “has never claimed to graduate from Texas Tech,” Marc Lumpkin, a spokesman for Englewood, Colorado-based EchoStar said in an interview. “This is an error on our part.” EchoStar corrected the error after a query from Bloomberg News, he said.

The degree assertion also appeared in a 1997 press release announcing a promotion. It is “not on his application that he has a degree,” Lumpkin said.

It was a result of “clerical errors that just continued” and wasn’t reflected in the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Lumpkin said.

Jackson was also identified as “a graduate of Texas Tech University” in an April 2006 annual report by Archos SA. The Igny, France-based maker of portable music and video players listed Jackson as a director. The company didn’t respond to calls and e-mails from Bloomberg News seeking comment.

A woman in Jackson’s office hung up on a reporter who attempted to contact Jackson by phone for comment.

Minkow Report

The Fraud Discovery Institute, a San Diego-based licensed private investigator that uses software to ferret out irregularities at publicly traded companies, questioned Jackson’s education after a tip, said co-founder Barry Minkow. Minkow served more than seven years in federal prison after being convicted of fraud while running ZZZZ Best Co.

Minkow said he owns put options on EchoStar. Owners of put options have the right to sell a stock at a set price within a set period. A put option increases in value as the price of the underlying security falls. Minkow almost always holds a position in securities his organization examines, according to a disclaimer on his Web site.

Jackson has headed EchoStar’s technologies unit since 2004, according to the company Web site. He joined in 1993 as vice president of engineering and became a senior vice president in 1997.

EchoStar gained 34 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $14.69 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The shares have lost 62 percent in the last 12 months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Ziegler in Boston at jziegler@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 6, 2009 16:15 EST