Crazy Deaf Joe Blog

Deaf People in Haiti After Earthqauke

The earthquake struck Haiti with 7.0 scale and it was sad and heartbroken. Millions are homeless so time for us to help this people in needy. To make donations, the official charity:

The American Red Cross – www.redcross.org
CARE – www.care.org
UNICEF – www.unicef.org

Giving has never been easier. You can text a word to four different numbers and that charges $5 or $10 to your cell phone bill. That money will go to Haiti relief.

The four organizations are:

Red Cross- text HAITI to 90999 to send a $10 donation. The American Red Cross is sending money, supplies and staff to Haiti to support relief efforts there after yesterday’s earthquake, which caused catastrophic damage and loss of life. The Red Cross contributed an initial $1 million from the International Response Fund to support the relief operation, and has opened its warehouse in Panama to provide tarps, mosquito nets and cooking sets for approximately 5,000 families. You can also contribute to the Red Cross by going to redcross.org or calling 1-800-redcross.

Yéle Haiti- text YELE to 501501 to send a $5 donation. Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti. Yéle’s community service programs include food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief. Grammy-Award winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti Wyclef Jean founded Yéle Haiti in 2005. The money donated will go to cover basic needs in Haiti. You can also contribute to this organization by going to www.yele.org/donation/

United Way- text HAITI to 864833 to send a $5 donation. The United Way is taking the money donated to support long-term recovery efforts to rebuild lives and infrastructure devastated by disaster and to address educational, financial and health-related challenges.

United Way Worldwide members in the Caribbean region have mobilized their staff, volunteer leaders and resources in response. Checks can be sent to the address below with the “Fund” referenced in either the memo line or an enclosed correspondence: United Way Worldwide P.O. Box 630568 Baltimore, MD 21263-0568.

International Medical Corps- Text HAITI to 85944 to contribute a $10 donation. International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team is in Port-au-Prince assisting survivors. The team is providing medical care outside the general hospital. Other members of the Emergency Response Team are conducting a rapid needs assessment and visiting hospitals around the city to explore their condition. In addition to emergency medical care, International Medical Corps will also focus on providing emergency shelter and other essential items in its relief effort.

All the money sent via text will show up on your next month’s cell phone bill. Please help if you can.

If there are deaf people in Haiti at the moment, you can help. We hope these people will get help! They will be all in our prayers as well.

Two Former Executives of Indicted Video Relay Services Company Plead Guilty to Defrauding FCC Program

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Anthony Mowl, the former assistant vice president of business development for Viable Communications Inc. (Viable), and Donald Tropp, the former human resources manager for Viable, pleaded guilty today to engaging in a conspiracy 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.

Today, Mowl, 25, and Tropp, 25, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton, N.J., to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mowl and Tropp were indicted on Nov. 19, 2009, along with Viable’s president, John T.C. Yeh; Viable’s vice president of corporate strategy, Joseph Yeh; and the Viable corporate entity.

In pleading guilty, Mowl and Tropp admitted that beginning in approximately fall of 2007 and continuing through approximately January 2009, they conspired with others to pay individuals to make fraudulent VRS phone calls using Viable’s VRS service. According to the pleas, John and Joseph Yeh paid Mowl and Tropp who would then pay people for using Viable’s VRS service. Mowl and Tropp kept a portion of the payments for themselves and distributed the remainder to the paid callers. Viable then caused the submission of fraudulent call minute claims to the FCC, causing the FCC to pay those claims at a rate of approximately $390 per hour for each of the VRS calls that it processed.

According to the indictment, 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.

According to information contained in the plea documents, Mowl and Tropp admitted that their role in defrauding the FCC’s VRS program led to a total of between $2.5 million and $7 million in fraudulent billing to the program. At sentencing, both Mowl and Tropp face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, as well as mandatory restitution and forfeiture. A sentencing date has not yet been set by the court.

Co-defendants John T.C. Yeh, Joseph Yeh and Viable are scheduled to stand trial on the charges in the indictment on May 24, 2010. An indictment is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

In addition to the indictment charging the Yehs, Mowl, Tropp and Viable, five indictments were unsealed on Nov. 19, 2009, charging an additional 22 people with engaging in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from the FCC’s VRS program. The indictments charge owners and employees of the following six companies with engaging in a scheme to defraud the FCC’s VRS program:

* Master Communications LLC, of Las Vegas;
* KL Communications LLC, of Phoenix;
* Mascom LLC of Austin, Texas;
* Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Interpreting Services Inc. (DHIS), of New York and New Jersey;
* Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf Corp. (ICSD), of Miami Lakes, Fla.; and
* Deaf Studio 29 of Huntington Beach, Calif.

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 U.S. Department of Justice