Dish Agrees to Settle ACP Fraud Case for $17 Million
DOJ said 84,000 subscribers were ineligible for subsidies. The company didn’t admit any wrongdoing.
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2026 – Dish agreed to pay more than $17 million to settle an investigation into whether it defrauded Federal Communications Commission programs for low-income broadband subscribers.
The Justice Department said in a release Wednesday that Dish enrolled more than 84,000 ineligible subscribers in the now-defunct Affordable Connectivity program and its predecessor and continued seeking payments after learning they weren’t eligible.
“DISH continued seeking FCC program funds for months after its executives learned about its agents’ enrollment fraud and after an FCC [Office of Inspector General] advisory warning. FCC OIG is committed to holding accountable bad actors who misuse taxpayers funds,” FCC inspector general Fara Damelin said in a statement.
