Video Relay Defrauders Plead Guilty

Two former Viable Communications executives have plead guilty to engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program of more than $2.5 million. VRS is an online video translation service that allows people with hearing disabilities to communicate with hearing individuals through the use of interpreters and web cameras. A person with a hearing disability who wants to communicate with a hearing person can do so by contacting a VRS provider through an audio and video Internet connection. The VRS provider, in turn, employs a video interpreter to view and interpret the hearing disabled person's signed conversation and relay the signed conversation orally to a hearing person. VRS is funded by fees assessed by telecommunications providers to telephone customers, and is provided at no cost to the VRS user.