The Morning Risk Report: FCC Threatens Charlie Ergen's Hold on Satellite, 5G Spectrum Licenses By David Smagalla | Dow Jones Risk Journal

Good morning. Telecom mogul Charlie Ergen's war chest is at risk after a U.S. regulator questioned his company's use of cellular and satellite spectrum licenses-including a chunk of airwaves long sought by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

What's the investigation? The Federal Communications Commission told Ergen, the chairman and co-founder of network operator EchoStar, that the agency's staff would investigate the company's compliance with federal requirements to build a nationwide 5G network. EchoStar owns both the Dish Network pay-TV brand and Boost Mobile's wireless service. The U.S. government in 2019 set several construction milestones for Dish to maintain cellular licenses worth billions of dollars.

Slow going: The company has spent years wiring thousands of cellphone towers to help Boost become a wireless operator that could rival AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, but the project has been slow-going. Boost's subscriber base has shrunk in the five years since Ergen bought the brand from Sprint.

Regulator concerns: "The terms of the deal were clear," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote to Ergen in a letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. "The FCC structured the buildout obligations to prevent spectrum warehousing and to ensure that Americans would gain broader access to high-speed wireless services, including in underserved and rural areas." Events

On May 15, Dow Jones will host an event for risk & compliance professionals in Stockholm discussing the intersection of geopolitical risk and compliance, and sanctions and export controls.

Speakers are Bjorn Fagersten, chief executive of Politea, Lothar Lieske, chief compliance officer, Volvo Group; Haider Mannan, founder & CEO of BIGTXN; Sabina Ausfelt, head of compliance & risk control of Juni; Meri Djerf, corporate counsel for compliance at Atlas Copco Group. You can register here .

Compliance

SEC whistleblower program chief stepped down.

The chief of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower award program has stepped down from her position.

Nicole Creola Kelly, who has led the securities regulator's whistleblower award program since November 2021, left her position in March after taking a federal employee buyout offer and has been on administrative leave since then.

Justice Department subpoenas Endo over puberty treatment.

Drugmaker Endo International said it received subpoenas from the Justice Department probing whether one of its products was being marketed for unapproved uses such as gender treatment healthcare.

Endo in a securities filing on Monday said the Justice Department's Consumer Protection Branch sent the requests in April as part of an investigation into whether the drugmaker improperly marketed Supprelin, a subcutaneous injection used to treat early onset puberty.

The U.S. in April detained about $3.7 million in shipments over suspected links to forced labor, including in China's Xinjiang region, continuing a recent falloff in enforcement numbers.

The U.K.'s Export Control Joint Unit amended 13 open general export licenses to exclude military nuclear power generating and nuclear power propulsion equipment from its Military List categories.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has published a blog outlining key compliance lessons for businesses following its first-ever fine imposed on a company for failing to respond to an official request for information.

When President Trump tours the Middle East this week, he will be looking to secure investments in the U.S. from the world's richest petrostates. His family businesses and close associates already have been striking deals in the region at a rapid clip.

A former Colombian port official has been sentenced to more than 12 years in U.S. federal prison for laundering proceeds of bribes through American financial institutions.

Not long ago, bosses routinely praised workers as their most prized asset. Today, with a giant question mark hanging over the economy, executives are pulling no punches in saying employees need to work harder, complain less and be glad they still have jobs . Risk

What the U.S.-China tariff rollback means for the American economy.

If you thought the U.S. economy was breaking up with China, well, think again .

"Neither side wants to decouple," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday in announcing the temporary agreement that dramatically lowered tariffs. The U.S., he said, was seeking "a long-lasting and durable trade deal" with China.

The reset steers the U.S. economy back on a more familiar path as the major consumer of goods, and lowers the risk of recession, economists say. The new agreement also temporarily abandons an attempt to use tariff shock therapy to restore America's status as a manufacturing powerhouse.

Trump's China Deal Makes Sense. How He Got Here Doesn't. U.S. Trade Agreements Mark Progress, Despite Lingering Uncertainty, BOE's Lombardelli Says EU Welcomes Progress in U.S.-China Trade Deal China Tariff Rollback Unlikely to Boost Imports, Port of L.A. Chief Says CEOs Rush to Get Their Shipments From China While Trade Truce Lasts Trump Slashes 'De Minimis' Tariffs on Small Shipments From China The mood on Main Street continues to worsen as unpredictable trade policy and a loosening labor market weighs on America's small businesses, according to a monthly survey.

The U.K.'s labor market eased in March as wages cooled and unemployment edged up, suggesting firms braced for higher payroll taxes and minimum wages starting in April.

Iran has rejected U.S. demands to end its uranium enrichment program while expressing willingness to continue nuclear negotiations.

A Kurdish militant group said it would end its armed struggle and dissolve itself after four decades of conflict with Turkey, a move that could help resolve a top security threat for the country and the wider Middle East.

The pharmaceutical industry's reaction to President Trump's executive order on drug prices? It could have been worse .

Hamas released the last living American hostage in Gaza on Monday, marking a diplomatic win for the Trump administration that has brought mixed reactions in Israel.

Volodymyr Zelensky asked President Trump to join potential peace talks in Turkey this week as the Ukrainian president continues his campaign to ratchet up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire. What Else Matters House Republicans unveiled a tax plan that raises the state-and-local tax deduction, ends some taxes on tipped income and overtime pay and extends President Trump's expiring 2017 tax cuts, partially paid for by rolling back tax breaks for electric cars and clean-energy production.

Perplexity is in advanced talks for a new funding round that would value it at $14 billion , a more than 50% increase from late last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Moderna's move to merge technology and human resources into a single function is the latest sign that artificial intelligence is bringing big changes to the workforce.

Apple is weighing price increases for its fall iPhone lineup, a step it is seeking to couple with new features and design changes, according to people familiar with the matter.

Foreign-trade zones are enabling companies to defer tariffs on imported goods and materials, for a while. About Us

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 13, 2025 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)

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