Miss-Delectable
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PHP:
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A North Haven man who pleaded guilty to defrauding a fund for the deaf of $2 million was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation, federal prosecutors said.
Raanan Liebermann, 65, admitted last October he operated a telephone call center that bilked the federal government of subsidies intended to help the deaf communicate.
Liebermann pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Federal Communications Commission and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
Liebermann's company, Publix Network Corp., which did business in North Haven, also pleaded guilty to the same charges. Liebermann and Publix were ordered to pay $2 million in restitution, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said.
Liebermann and Publix also agreed to forfeit bank accounts of more than $500,000.
In imposing the sentence, Senior U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns credited Liebermann for researching developing technologies for the handicapped, in particular the hearing-disabled, O'Connor said.
From January 1999 through March 2001, Liebermann operated a telephone call center intended to provide telecommunications relay services, TRS, to the deaf and speech-impaired. The FCC established a TRS fund to subsidize the service. To be reimbursed from that fund, a TRS provider must submit reports of the time spent providing TRS on interstate phone calls.
Liebermann admitted that nearly all the TRS calls handled by Publix were made by the same individuals, all employees of Liebermann, Publix or an affiliated company.http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...,0,7585161.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut