Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Why the FBI Looked Into Viable's Rate Billing Trail?

Why the FBI Looked into the Viable, Inc's Rate Billing Trail? That was probably the routine FBI investigation covering the interested party. One of my friend within DC area sent me the e-msg without any in-depth explaination. I deleted my friend's name and email address to protect the reporter's source.

Here is the email message -

Viable is not a certified VRS provider that can bill directly to NECA/FCC, Instead Viable used CACVRS to bill for their VRS services)

Who is the CAC? I checked out that was the Communication Access Center based in Flint, Michigan. The CAC office also existed in Indiana. The CAC usually provided the technical services to various telecommunication facilities.

That explained why the FBI got its pique about the Viable, Inc's so-called questionable rate
trail which the Viable, Inc. headquarter people probably had nothing to do with any unethical relay billing practices.

The Viable, Inc., had fully cooperated with the FBI to sort out the rate billing issues.

ASlize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
rlmdeaf@hotmail.com

7 comments:

  1. Actually, Robert, if you read the criminal complaint against the Miami call center, it makes it clear that interpreters also accused Viable's Rockville call center of running up calls as well.

    From what I heard, CAC has stopped payment to Viable pending this investigation and many Viable employees have not been paid this past month. Viable has also started to lay off some eomployees.

    My concern is that Viable was poorly run because they did not have enough money to cover their employees' salaries when CAC stopped payment. Viable has been in business for three years and did not ave the common sense to save up money for even ONE MONTH of payments to its employees?!

    The Yehs should be ASHAMED!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I 100% agree, management knows exactly what is happening with the minutes and how they are being counted. When contracting for the United States government there are precise restraints and restrictions and guidelines that have to be followed. This is not new information coming form Viable as we saw from the Texas location. This is not some “oops we made a mistake” this is a documented systematic fraudulent behavior that was investigated and accumulated enough evidence to freeze their assists and gain an indictment.
    This is such a shame for the EVERYONE, Viable management has let so so many people down. The good hearted, dedicated, brilliant minds that worked hard and gave up good jobs (most relocated to work for Viable) to the dedicated interpreters that were stuck in the middle of all this. Shame on Viable, they ruined their name, reputation and destroyed and credibility they had.

    Say hello to the Enron of the VRS world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. From: Glenn Lockhart [mailto:glenn.lockhart@viable.net]
    Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 6:11 PM
    To: undisclosed-recipients:
    Subject: Friday Update

    To: Viable Employees

    Re: Friday Update
    ----


    It is my pleasure to recap the 4:30p announcement made by the executive management team to Rockville employees, call center managers and the manager of the national support team:

    ====

    Everyone will be paid. Our funder has committed to moving forward and taking the steps necessary to infuse Viable with the cash that will allow us to meet our payroll and other immediate obligations. We are enormously grateful to them for working with us at a breakneck pace and finalizing an agreement within 10 days that normally takes months. We are also grateful to every one of you at Viable for the commitment you have shown to our customers and the faith you have placed in us.

    However, how exactly financing will move forward is entirely in the hands of our funder and the banking process, and we cannot pinpoint which day next week the funds will come in. We also anticipate 48 hours between receipt of funds and disbursement, and we realize this also raises the question of whether you will be paid your wages due July 17 and July 31 with one check or two checks. You have our pledge that we will work to finalize all this information as early next week as possible.

    ====

    I would also like to take this opportunity to inform everyone that our health insurance coverage is temporarily lapsed (dating back to July 1) because we were unable to pay our premium by its due date. However, we have finalized an agreement with our insurer and our coverage will be reinstated retroactive to July 1 once we pay our premium and you should not be concerned if you receive notice on any medical claims. The immediate reinstatement of your health insurance policy takes the same high priority as your paychecks and we expect to resolve this next week.

    In meanwhile, executive management wants you to have the weekend with assurance that you will be paid in full for the wages you are owed, that your benefits will remain intact, and that Viable remains with a future of stellar service to the deaf and hard of hearing community.

    We deeply appreciate your understanding and would like to thank everyone and their families for their patience.

    ***
    This e-mail, including any attachments may contain information that is protected by law as PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL and is intended solely for the use of the recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the recipient. Please note that if you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying, distribution, retention, re-transmission, printing or any other use of this e-mail or the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail communication in error, please immediately send an e-mail reply to notify the sender and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail from your computer system. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A number of Viable employees were laid off today due to financial circumstances according to an email sent. The tone was brief. This is the second or third round of layoffs at Viable.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Viable sucks for a big time. I know that Viable won't be so success like the other VRS providers but just its' technicals and limited features from Viable. Sad Sad Sad!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Needless to say more about Viable's dire situation, I am wondering if other VRS companies, such as Sorenson, CSDVRS, HORVS, etc, have ever considered a possibility of taking over the sinking Viable company and save Viable reputation. In this case, it could expedite payments to unpaid Viable employees in order to avoid multiple lawsuits that have been filed by disgruntled and unpaid employees.

    Also, it would still keep the Viable server running (MUST) in behalf of all Viable customers who have paid and used their VPADs and VPAD+s. The capabilities of VPAD and VPAD+ rely entirely on the Viable server. Without the Viable server, VPADs and VPAD+s would become obsolete. The Viable server is a heart of the Viable body. It would be catastrophe for all Viable customers.

    I hope that John Yeh will read this comment and consider a possibility of a company takeover by other VRS companies only if Viable situation is dire. I think Sorenson is the best business to buy Viable because Sorenson has tremendous funds and could keep the Viable server alive for VPADs and VPAD+s customer. Also, Sorenson would expand its customer base!.

    Yes, it may hurt Viable pride if Viable is taken over but Viable has to swallow a bitter pill for its sake.

    Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  7. If I was Sorenson I'd not infect hard-earned legacies by acquiring anything related to Viable or bad ones.

    ReplyDelete