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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Merry Xmas - Government to give $6 Billion to bankrupt corporation |
Current rating: 0 |
by outrageous
(No verified email address) |
12 Dec 2001
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Another huge crooked giveaway. Seems like the government exists to fund everything but the needs of its people.
(And the people of Urbana-Champaign can't even start a Low Power FM community radio station, because another part of the communications industry bought protection against free speech from Congress, too.) |
In a development that is receiving little media attention, Congress approved a plan to pay $6 BILLION to the bankrupt telecommunications company "NextWave" to re-aquire license rights to public airwaves the company never paid for. In a bidding process several years ago, NextWave agreed to purchase from the US government exclusive rights to 216 licenses for space on the RF communications spectrum for a price of $4.7 billion. After making a token payment of 10% of this price, Nextwave breached its contract, made no further payments, did absolutely nothing to pursue its grandiose business plan, and declared bankruptcy. For reasons that defy reason or understanding, a court declared that NextWave is the true "owner" of the unpaid-for license rights, thus creating the present ridiculous situation in which the public must ransom the airwave licenses back from the defunct company. The "settlement" deal relies on an agreement by Verizon and AT&T to pay the government almost $16 billion for the license rights, $6 billion of which would go directly to NextWave. Officials are touting the settlement plan as a "better deal" for the public than pursuing a Supreme Court appeal of the lower court's ruling.
Once again public funds are being gifted to a private corporation, but unlike most corporate welfare schemes that at least hide behind the pretense of "creating jobs" or "benefitting the economy", this is just an outright gift to "buy back" rights that the company never paid for. It's a well-settled principle that one who defaults on a contract to purchase something, whether it be a car, house, or furniture, is entitled only to the equity share minus all recovery and liquidation expenses. Why is Congress so eager to pay out $6 BILLION of the taxpayers' money to "re-acquire" rights that the public was never paid for and therefore never relinquished? A full investigation of Nextwave is warranted, with special attention paid to whether the company planned this from the beginning, and who among the rich and powerful - in government or elsewhere - will benefit from this $6 BILLION rip-off.
More details of the settlement proposal (before it became a done deal) at:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-8094920.html?tag=ch_mh |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=104450&group=webcast
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