2 former officials of Rockville firm plead guilty to conspiracy

Two former officials of Rockville-based Viable Communications, which provides telecommunications services for deaf people, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to defraud the federal government of more than $2.5 million, federal officials said.

Anthony Mowl, 25, the company's former assistant vice president of business development, and Donald Tropp, 25, the former human resources manager, each pleaded guilty in federal court in New Jersey to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Company President John T.C. Yeh, who is well known in the Washington area deaf community, also is charged in connection with the scam. He is awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to defraud the federal government and counts of submitting false claims and mail fraud.

Viable and other companies offer a service, reimbursed by the Federal Communications Commission, that allows deaf people to make telephone calls. The deaf person contacts Viable by video link. A sign language interpreter places the call and translates a conversation between the deaf caller and a hearing person on the other end.

Mowl and Tropp admitted that they conspired with others at Viable to pay people to make bogus calls and billed the federal government for those calls, federal officials said. They acknowledged that the fraudulent billing totaled at least $2.5 million.