A Texas Business Court jury in Dallas deliberated for just 90 minutes late Friday night before ordering FiberWave and one of its subcontractors to pay AT&T $8 million for breaching its contractual duty to indemnify the telecom giant. The litigation started when FiberWave, a former sales partner, sued AT&T for $50 million in unpaid commissions.
“This company engaged in illegal conduct, and we terminated our relationship with them, and anyone involved in the scheme, after we learned what they were doing. We’re pleased the jury agreed with us and we appreciate their thoughtful attention,” AT&T said in a statement to The Texas Lawbook.
After a weeklong jury trial with dozens of side bars and a clock with a hard stop, jurors heard testimony on the sales culture at AT&T and a Department of Justice investigation. Counsel started closing arguments at 6 p.m., and the jurors started deliberating at 8 p.m. An hour and a half later, the jurors had reached a verdict.
The jury found FiberWave’s conduct resulted in $4 million in damages and Spearhead Networks’ $4 million. A total of $8 million was awarded to AT&T.
Judge Andrea Bouressa presides over the case. Since the Texas Business Court does not have its own space, the weeklong jury trial is taking place in Dallas County District Court Judge Eric Moyé’s courtroom in the George Allen Courts Building.
The dispute stems from AT&T’s practice of contracting with third-party representatives and entities to market and sell its services for commissions. Faisal Chaudhry was an AT&T employee for four years until he left in 2008 to operate Spearhead Networks, which entered a service-provider agreement with the telecom giant in 2010.
Chris Percy, who was at AT&T for 26 years and served as a vice president in 2018, coordinating and supervising high-value business sales with providers like Spearhead Consulting. Percy left to join Spearhead Consulting in 2019.
In 2022, AT&T received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California requesting information about Spearhead Networks and several former AT&T employees.
Spearhead Consulting renamed itself to FiberWave in 2023 and became one of AT&T’s largest third-party providers. Spearhead Networks was a FiberWave subcontractor.
The following year, AT&T ended its contract with FiberWave, claiming it was due to a Department of Justice investigation into the company and an alleged kickback scheme. In its termination letter, AT&T stated it would withhold payments pending further investigation into alleged misconduct by Spearhead Networks.
FiberWave filed its suit against AT&T in February 2025, claiming that the mobile company owes it $50 million in compensation for marketing and reselling AT&T’s services to businesses.
AT&T then counterclaimed that FiberWave violated its contract when it filed suit, alleging it contained confidential information. FiberWave later removed the confidential information at AT&T’s request, but the company called it “another example of its brazen disregard for contractual obligations.” AT&T named both FiberWave and Spearhead Networks as defendants.
Judge Bouressa narrowed the claims presented at trial in a memorandum opinion last month.
The jurors heard testimony from Chaudhry earlier in the week that he made payments to AT&T employees, but that was the culture. He said once Percy joined Spearhead Consulting, he provided leverage against AT&T employees’ demands.
“They weren’t doing something that was out of the norm. It was a pay-to-play culture, is what AT&T had,” Chaudhry said.
FiberWave’s counsel, James Shields of Shields Legal Group, told the jury in closing arguments that the case was about the money.
“AT&T is playing the victim,” Shields said.
He argued that AT&T failed to prove any breach of the agreement and that AT&T had its service providers engage in pay-to-play for leads on sales.
Shields asked the jury to award a total of $50 million in damages for what FiberWave claimed it was owed and attorney fees.
AT&T’s counsel, Pete Marketos of Reese Marketos, started his opening argument with “ABCs” — agreements, bribes and a cover-up — and ended his closing with “DEs” — denial and excuses.
“People tend to think of AT&T as a phone bill and not the people who work there,” Marketos said, motioning to his client, AT&T corporate representative Shelley Goodman.
Marketos told the jury that AT&T terminated its contract with FiberWave for cause due to the DOJ investigation. As a result, FiberWave and Spearhead Networks are obligated to indemnify AT&T for resulting legal fees. AT&T had hired Sidley Austin to do an internal investigation, which cost $8.4 million.
Spearhead Networks called Dykema’s Chris Kratovil to the stand to testify that Sidley Austin overcharged for its two-year internal investigation.
“We did not ask to be here, right? It wasn’t anything AT&T supposedly did that triggered all of this. It was Mr. Chaudhry and his company. He was paying people commercial bribes. Where’s the accountability that we talked about?” Marketos said.
On rebuttal, Shields told the jury that the conduct the DOJ investigated happened after the agreement was signed. “There wasn’t one word that anything that happened in that investigation during the term of the agreement,” Shields said.
Marketos, in his rebuttal, pointed the jurors to evidence, including the agreement and bank statements.
The Reese Marketos team and AT&T in-house counsel went out for drinks after the verdict was read.
Shields declined to comment on the verdict.
Sasha Begovic, Bart Higgins and R. Brian Shields of Shields Legal Group and Byron Henry of Henry Hill Firm are representing FiberWave and Percy.
Matthew Muckleroy of Crawford Wishnew Lang represented Spearhead Networks and Chaudhry.
Tyler Bexley, Will Hamilton, Brett Rosenthal, and Whitney Wendel of Reese Marketos and Leah Bower of Lehotsky Cohn are representing AT&T.
The case number is 25-BC01A-0013.