Saturday, August 3, 2013

Jail time for Interpreting scam

A Pennsylvania man is going to jail for making fraudulent claims about sign language interpreting services to the New York City Department of Education. Nelson Ruiz pled guilty back in December and yesterday he got his sentence--57 months in federal prison. Prosecutors say Ruiz billed the city for sign language services totaling more than $2 million dollars between 2008 and 2012. On the fake bills, he forged the names of parents and employees of the Department of Education--including one who was dead. He claimed his six companies provided interpreting services to 11 special-needs children in public schools. But the services weren't provided--or needed. Besides the time behind bars, Ruiz was ordered to pay all the money back.