Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen is again fighting with a group of hedge funds that hold LightSquared's bank debt, this time over which side should be providing a short-term bankruptcy loan to keep LightSquared afloat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. In a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Ergen's SPSO Special Opportunities investment vehicle said the $33 million loan offer from the hedge funds to keep LightSquared afloat through April 15 is "inferior" to theirs. Ergen's loan, his lawyers said, "is not a coercive financing designed to benefit select parties in interest rather than the estate as a whole." After months of being on the same side in LightSquared's bankruptcy case, Ergen and the ad hoc group of hedge funds have been adversaries since Dish withdrew its $2.2 billion bid for LightSquared's spectrum assets earlier this month. The hedge funds, which like Ergen own LightSquared's bank debt, had filed a restructuring proposal for LightSquared based on the bid trying to force Dish into making the deal. However, a judge turned them down earlier last week, saying Dish properly abandoned its offer.
