06/24/10

Benjamin Pena, indicted among 25 other individuals charged with engaging in a nationwide scheme to defraud the FCC's Video Relay Service (VRS) program, was convicted yesterday for his participation in a plan whereby he and others were compensated for generating hundreds of thousands of fraudulent minutes provided through Viable Communications Inc., a uncertified VRS provider.  After a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, a jury found Pena guilty on five of six counts, including two counts of filing false claims with the government and two counts of mail fraud.  At sentencing, Pena faces a maximum statutory sentence of fifty-five years, and under the federal sentencing guidelines, Pena faces a prison term of between nine and eleven years.  The case was prosecuted by attorneys in the Justice Department's Criminal Fraud Section, with assistance from agents from the FBI's Public Corruption Section of the Washington Field Office and investigators from the FCC OIG.