Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Three Former Owners and Employees of Two Video Relay Service Companies
Plead Guilty to Defrauding FCC Program
Three former owners and employees of two different video relay service
companies pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud the Federal
Communications Commission’s (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program of more
than $2.5 million, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of
the Criminal Division.
The following defendants each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court
Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton, N.J., to one count of conspiracy to commit
mail fraud:
* Yosbel Buscaron, 25, a co-owner of Florida-based Innovative Communication
Services for the Deaf (ICSD);
* Lazaro Fernandez, 35, a co-owner of ICSD; and
* Natan Zfati, 32, a former video interpreter (VI) for New York and New
Jersey-based Deaf and Hard of Hearing Interpreting Services, Inc. (DHIS).
Buscaron, Fernandez and Zfati were charged with engaging in schemes to steal
millions of dollars from the FCC’s VRS program, along with 23 other people
and one company, in six indictments unsealed on Nov. 19, 2009. According to
the indictments, 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 VRS users. The FCC reimburses VRS
providers at a rate of approximately $6.50 per minute, which amounts to
approximately $390 per hour.
In pleading guilty, the three defendants admitted that they conspired with
others to pay individuals to make fraudulent VRS phone calls and to process
fraudulent VRS phone calls that were billed to the FCC through VRS provider
Viable Communications Inc. Each defendant admitted to generating or
processing thousands of illegitimate VRS hours that were billed to the FCC.
According to information contained in the plea documents, Buscaron,
Fernandez and Zfati each admitted that their role in defrauding the FCC’s
VRS program led to a total loss of between $2.5 and $7 million.
At sentencing, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison, a fine of $250,000, as well as mandatory restitution and forfeiture.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 29, 2010.
To date, 11 individuals have pleaded guilty to their roles in defrauding the
FCC. Co-defendants Joshua Finkle and Irma Azrelyant, co-owners of DHIS,
pleaded guilty on Feb. 18, 2010, for their roles in the scheme and are
scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, 2010. Co-defendant Alfia Iskandarova,
a DHIS VI, pleaded guilty on March 4, 2010, and is scheduled to be sentenced
on June 28, 2010.
The indictments charge owners and employees of the following six companies
with engaging in a scheme to defraud the FCC’s VRS program:
Viable Communications Inc., of Rockville, Md.;
Master Communications LLC of Las Vegas;
KL Communications LLC of Phoenix;
Mascom LLC of Austin, Texas;
Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf Corp. (ICSD) of Miami Lakes,
Fla.; and
Deaf Studio 29 of Huntington Beach, Calif.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent
until and unless proven guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.
These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Hank Bond Walther and
Trial Attorney Brigham Cannon of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The
cases are being investigated by FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S.
Postal Inspection Service and the FCC Office of Inspector General.
Source:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/March/10-crm-237.html