Dish Bondholders Sue Struggling Company Over Asset Transfers
- Satellite-TV provider is saddled with over $20 billion of debt
- Dish shuffled valuable spectrum licenses into new subsidiaries
Dish, saddled with more than $20 billion of debt, has been searching for ways to address fast-approaching maturities as it tries to transition its business from pay-TV to wireless services.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergBondholders of struggling Dish Network Corp. sued the satellite-TV provider, demanding it unwind transfers that they said put valuable assets out of the hands of creditors and violated lending terms.
“Through a brazen series of related transactions,” billions of dollars of assets were transferred from Dish and its subsidiary DBS, according to the lawsuit filed Friday. They were removed from the reach of existing creditors, in exchange for nothing, according to the complaint. “Through this action, plaintiffs now seek to recover those wrongfully acquired assets.”