LightSquared files ethics complaint

Exasperated by a government process that has left them scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, LightSquared filed a complaint with NASA’s inspector general’s office alleging that a key member of a panel that advises the government on GPS violated ethics laws.

Bradford Parkinson, second in command of a federal advisory board that has played an integral role informing the government’s views of the LightSquared-GPS controversy, “appears to have violated a federal conflict of interest statute” as a special government employee, the filing states. Parkinson serves as vice chairman of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, which advises the Defense Department, the Transportation Department and a host of other federal agencies on GPS policy. Parkinson has a multimillion dollar stake in Trimble, a GPS manufacturing company at the heart of a campaign to derail the broadband company from entering the market. The PNT Advisory Board operates under the auspices of NASA. In the 27-page complaint, LightSquared argues that Parkinson, as a Trimble board member who has publicly called the broadband company a “bunch of greedy guys that are like the worst of the people in real estate," has a clear conflict of interest pursuant to the law. Absent a waiver from NASA, which Parkinson did not receive, he should not have been advising the government on this matter, LightSquared attorney Curtis Lu argues. Essentially, the company makes the case that Parkinson created an unfair playing field, which undermines LightSquared’s chances of success.