Dish Network Must Again Face Whistleblower’s License Suit (2)

Dish Network Corp. must again defend itself in a whistleblower’s False Claims Act suit alleging that it used sham small businesses to win FCC communications licenses worth billions of dollars, the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday.

Vermont National Telephone Co. showed that a district court was wrong to rule that the FCA’s “government-action bar” required dismissal, Judge David S. Tatel of the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in its decision to reverse.

The bar precludes suits “based upon allegations or transactions which are the subject of a civil suit or an administrative civil money penalty proceeding in ...