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Seven Companies Arrested by FBI for VRS Fraud

Excerpts from several articles about VRS fraud and TV CBS Evening News (with closed captioned):

Source: CBS Evening News

The Seattle Times Company – Politics & Government

WASHINGTON —

Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced criminal charges against more than two dozen people accused of stealing tens of millions of dollars from a telephone service for the deaf.

Authorities said owners and employees at seven companies schemed to create bogus calls to a video service that allows the deaf to converse over phone lines to hearing people. Together, the companies represent about 15 percent of the market for such services, according to Justice Department officials.

Arrests have been made in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

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Justice News – The Briefing Room

U.S. Department of Justice

Twenty-six Charged in Nationwide Scheme to Defraud the FCC’s Video Relay Service Program

Arrests Made in Nine States

Indictments were unsealed today against 26 people charged with engaging in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Joseph Persichini Jr., Deputy Chief Postal Inspector Zane Hill, and FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus.

Arrests were made today by FBI agents and Postal Inspectors in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Maryland, and were the result of a joint FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and FCC Office of Inspector General (FCC-OIG) investigation into a nationwide scheme to defraud the FCC’s VRS program.

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SNAP! VRS Press Release -Comments on the US Department of Justice