Sham Station Seller Guel and Enforcement Bureau Both Appeal Forfeiture Amount
Both Antonio Cesar Guel and the FCC Enforcement Bureau have appealed Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin’s June ruling that Guel must pay a $188,491 penalty -- the maximum allowed for a single violation -- for a sham transfer of multiple…
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broadcast stations to his teenage niece (see 2506160044). The Enforcement Bureau said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-267 that FCC precedent dictates that each of the seven stations Guel pretended to sell constitutes a separate violation, and that Guel should have to pay $188,491 for each one. That would total $1,319,437. Guel's filing, posted Thursday, argued that the ALJ improperly set the $188,491 penalty amount and that before requiring a forfeiture the agency was required to issue a notice of apparent liability proposing a $188,491 penalty. An NAL would give Guel the opportunity to submit evidence about his inability to pay the forfeiture amount, his filing said. He also argued that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to issue monetary forfeitures after the U.S. Supreme Court’s SEC v. Jarkesy ruling and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ subsequent ruling striking down the agency’s forfeiture against AT&T. “Under those courts’ rulings, the FCC cannot impose civil penalties upon Mr. Guel without the protections of a trial by jury before a neutral arbitrator,” said the Guel filing. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has maintained that the FCC still has forfeiture authority (see 2504280038)