FBI Visit Viable VRS Headquarters
Jul/0918
This story came to my eyes and was shocked. This is from Gazette, a Maryland newspaper that they are doing some research. This is scary but sad. Story:
The Rockville headquarters of Viable Inc., which provides video interpreting services for hearing-impaired people, was visited by federal investigators recently, and the company is “cooperating fully” with investigators, a Viable spokesman said.
Glenn Lockhart said in an e-mail Saturday that federal investigators visited the company’s headquarters in June. He referred specific questions to company attorney Timothy Sullivan, who did not return calls seeking comment on the reason for the investigation Monday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland did not return calls, either.
“Regardless, our service has remained 24/7 without downtime,” Lockhart said. “We are still providing top-notch video relay services to deaf and hard of hearing individuals who rely on our technologies for their telephone calls to family, businesses and everyone else important in their lives.”
Viable’s offerings include videoconferencing hardware and software, and video-based and on-site interpreting services.
The business has grown from a handful of employees in 2006 to more than 240 employees, with most workers hearing-impaired. It has numerous call centers in Maryland and other states.
Last year, Viable was named one of The Gazette of Politics and Business’ Exceptional 53 businesses and nonprofits.
Source: Gazette ( http://www.gazette.net/stories/07132009/businew181442_32538.shtml )
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6:16 pm on July 16th, 2009
i dunno think timothy sullivan is the company’s in-house attorney. he was hired in defense of viable. carla mathers is viable’s own attorney doing other stuff. timothy sullivan may be the same person representing a criminal defense specialty firm. research this on brennan sullivan & mckenna llp http://www.bsm-legal.com
11:11 pm on July 16th, 2009
Well.. you are wrong viable is doing illegal. John yeh used to invest safari media fraud business. Now viable doing fraud business. Also, vaible using convorelay’s call center. Dont you realized that chad and robin work with Hawk Relay and got busted due to fraud. Now convorelay are fraud too! Sigh.. Who those poeple??! Therefore they are not honest business.
10:30 pm on July 17th, 2009
The truth to the matter I work at VRS center and I saw the abusive practice with my own eyes. They would have conference calls with two deaf people using vrs center to relay the calls and these deaf people should be using videophone. They used to do this a few times a week for a few hours. They would have deaf people who work in house being relay operator and they would speak to their friends through web camera. It’s time to make an example of Mr. Yeh and the owner of interpreting agency in NY and NJ. I feel bad for the innocent people who work for this company and they are also the fault because they went along with it. I hope they close this company or it’s bought out buy a company, who will keep his promise not to hurt the deaf community future in translating calls. The interpreting agency should be ban to serve the deaf community as a interpreting company. I think the Yeh’s family need to serve time in prison and lose everything to make them example to our society.
12:03 am on July 18th, 2009
John: You’re pathetic.
I know ConvoRelay. I like their service. I know Viable and I like their service. It all boils down to: Bridget Bonheyo.
R-
10:03 am on July 18th, 2009
Let’s wait till all the facts are in. The news report states that this Deaf business is cooperating fully with the investigators, so no judging beforehand.
A weakness of our small community is that we often have to take the example or advice of hearing people, and we have limited resources to check out if the information is legal or ethical. Let’s be charitable, or at least, let’s be fair.
12:26 pm on July 18th, 2009
don’t you find it odd http://www.sportsmx.com is not sponsored nor advertised by a litter of for-profit video relay services (convo relay, hawk relay, viable and xvrs) under the ring of the non-profit organization cacdhh and its cac relay curtain? i learned from sources under armour gives little money and gold gym’s sponsorship deal is not national but is actually local meaning just the frederick, maryland’s gym. sometimes opportunists like bonheyo and company prefers laying low not attracting attention of regulators overseeing relay services. i’m curious to see whether bonheyo & bonheyo and other relay services will survive this embarrassing deaf mess. this calls for a government owned relay service. this is a blow to credibility of the american sign language deaf.
3:52 pm on July 19th, 2009
Dianrez: The spokesman said Viable is “fully cooperating,” not the news.
Nevertheless, the FBI is conducting an investigation to see if there was any wrongdoing. That does not automatically mean an admission of guilt. We need to wait until this goes to the courtroom when all facts are in.
7:25 pm on July 19th, 2009
Just to warn you, The Feds is reading this post too and reviewing your comments and I know some of you don’t publish your name and email address but I have your IP address, I have the right to relay the information to them.
1:41 am on July 20th, 2009
If you people think that CAC and ICSD are the only two companies out there doing this, you are very naive. I’ve worked for about 3 different VRS companies and I can tell you that it happens more than anyone would like to admit. The interpreters have no clue sometimes until they see the same people over and over and over calling the same places over and over and over. How do we prove that these are “fake” calls? There are other calls that you can’t prove are fake but we VIs know. But you can’t blame the VIs. What can we do??? How can we prove ANYTHING?
For example, company 1 is friends with company 2 and has company 2 call in many times until they find interpreters whose VI numbers start with a particular number so they know that’s the call center’s particular number. (That’s for call centers who get paid depending upon minutes.) Then company 2 proceeds to call a thousand different car dealerships asking about 50 different cars each. The dealership guys get annoyed after about an hour and ask for call back info. The deaf person says “you can’t call me back, I’m deaf” and says that s/he will call back later. Lather, rinse, and repeat about 100 more times during an interpreter’s shift. and multiply that by however many terps are working.
There’s no way we can prove anything…but we know it happens. And now that this is all over the internet, the slime bags who are doing this currently and getting away with it, are aware that people are watching and will take extra precautions to make sure that their tracks are covered. Way to go FBI. You just blew the element of surprise.
8:15 am on July 20th, 2009
are VRS providers still under an Investigating?
8:03 am on July 21st, 2009
I have been warning to some people not to give out SS numbers and Visa number to VRS, some of the VRS couldn’t be trust. I learn my lesson cause years back when start new relay services, someone stole my phone numbers and bill me over 3000 dollars and phone co would not help to stop or erase my bill. Sprint Co paid that off for me. And remember that some of VRS couldn’t be trust. DON’T GIVE OUT SS NUMBERS AND VISA NUMBER.
10:32 am on July 21st, 2009
Is true fact that viable is no longer service in us? Would you please explain clearly this situation.
Thanks
10:43 pm on July 22nd, 2009
Viable is still alive….
2:01 pm on July 23rd, 2009
Re. SS and Credit Card #’s over VRS, etc
You can always give part of the SS or CC # over the VRS then email the rest of the # to whoever. I do this on faxes where my SS #is required but I only put down part of my SS # then email the rest to the recipient.
6:54 am on August 6th, 2009
Now the Viable call centers in NJ & NJ are closed. I am curious if Viable and its associated call centers will completely shut down forever. The government is still investigating but watch and see what happens.
6:59 am on August 6th, 2009
(I meant to say the call centers in NJ “& NY”)
10:47 am on August 10th, 2009
To Larry: I am so sorry that happened to you. I have done VRS and I will tell you I have never heard of someone taking a SS# or credit card number, if I had I would report them in a second. I processed many calls all day long relating to banks, credit cards and other personal information. Never once have I ever thought about stealing someone’s information.
Please know that because there is one bad person out there doesn’t mean we are all that way. Some of us do our job because we love bridging the communication gap and giving Deaf an opportunity to do the same a hearing person can do over the phone.
The only thing I can recommend is if you are worried or just want to be cautious I would keep a log relating to your calls. It is a shame to have to use these precautions but may be better for you in the end. You can make a log like I called Big Bank on 8/10/09 at 12:05pm relating to my checking account. I used interpreter number 1234 from the XYZ VRS service. If you miss the interpreter number feel free to ask them to repeat it. There is nothing wrong with you protecting your identity.
6:04 pm on November 10th, 2009
Am reading all this and i dont ud how some of you accuse pll with their names although you dont post your name and all you do is throw accusation in the air like you want to show to the rest that you r something or you have to gain something. wouldnt be better for the investigation to take place and leave out your anonymous accusations apart? But of course anonymous , cause or either lies either bull.. Why i dont have my name? cause am sick and tired from chickens. And i dont accuse. Am laughing with ppl that think they know stuff, share things that they think they heard so be significant in this blog and over internet, cause am sure they dont do it only here. In the real life i bet they kiss feet. I feel pity of you, while a great problem is going to be solved you think you provide info to others. Where are the facts? I dont think so. Bed time stories. There is a problem, but others are meant to solve it with proofs.