A bankruptcy trustee and government lawyers have settled accusations that the Obama administration mishandled a multimillion-dollar loan awarded to a wireless company in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, leading the business to go broke and lay off hundreds of workers, The Washington Times reported yesterday. The settlement comes months after the trustee filed court papers faulting the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the collapse of Colorado-based Open Range Communications. Open Range went bankrupt last year, owing taxpayers more than $70 million. The company closed on a $267 million federal loan guarantee in 2008 days before the Obama administration took office. Under the loan agreement with the USDA's Rural Utilities Service, Open Range was supposed to deploy broadband service in hundreds of rural communities in 17 states. But after the company went bankrupt within a few years, trustee Charles Forman blamed federal officials for mishandling the loan and spurring the company's collapse. Under the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, the federal government would receive $1.75 million from an escrow account and more than one-third of whatever money the bankruptcy trustee receives from lawsuits against investors and former company officials.
