Warning: Iliana Rivera Sutton & Aha! Interpreting Solutions, LLC

I caution every person, every businesses, and every agency against contracting or employing Iliana Sutton and/or her “company” Aha! Interpreting Solutions, LLC. My personal experience has been that she has grave financial problems and zero credibility. IIiana is as truthful as Pinocchio and as successful as poor Geppetto.

In 2018 Iliana Sutton inked a contract with a national meat processing corporation to provide language translation for an employee education initiative.  Iliana had at least two gigs in my state which is how I crossed paths with her. The website and facebook and such seemed to check out and I had no reason to dig as deeply then as I did later.  For one of her engagements, Iliana contracted with myself and three other individuals. However, when it came time to pay her subcontractors,  she breached her own terms.  Two of us four received her first payment; two did not. When she sent our second payment, all four transfers bounced for insufficient funds. Her re-attempt also bounced. I offered her the option to satisfy her obligation to me using a credit card which she refused to do. Ultimately, I ferreted out the person responsible for the education initiative at the national headquarters. In truth, this was not the corporation’s problem, but to their credit, the initiative’s director intervened. Only then did Iliana finally pay us with cashier’s checks and only because the director gave Iliana 7 days to do so.  Iliana never compensated us for fees and expenses resulting from her breach of contract and her bounced payments. I suspect there are dozens more of Iliana’s victims from Florida all the way to Michigan and perhaps beyond.

Shortly after this debacle I discovered that Iliana took herself and two employees on  a “business trip” to Mexico at the very moment that her payments to us failed for insufficient funds. Here is an embedded post from her Facebook:

I doubt that Iliana’s small Arkansas operation received any benefit from an obscure expo in Mexico. I also doubt the lawfulness of expensing a vacation as a business trip. For all her cash flow issues of 2019, Iliana somehow still found the financial resources to employ Sammi Wilmoth of Osborne & Wilmoth as legal counsel. It makes a person wonder why Iliana felt the need to lawyer-up to order to avoid dealing with us directly..

In 2020, Iliana emailed poor quality iPhone pics of handwritten 1099s to us four contractors. She never asked (and never had) our consent to blast our social security numbers and addresses through unencrypted internet email. She thereafter refused to provide paper copies for our records, as is required by the Internal Revenue Service. Iliana’s actions in this respect were reckless and unlawful. Handwritten 1099s must be retained as hard paper copies. Her refusal to comply with IRS regulations simply is further evidence of her ineptitude and irresponsibility.

If you have experienced similar issues, please comment below.  You may remain anonymous, your email will not be published, and I will reply privately if you request. If you do not wish to leave a public comment, you can email me privately.

I offer these warnings as a matter of free speech. Truth is an absolute defense to defamation which is why Iliana has not (and never will) sue anyone in court for speaking truth. Eventually I hope organize all of the emails and text messages from that period so that readers can see her for who she actually is.

My experience suggests that anyone who employs Iliana Sutton or Aha! Interpreting Solutions does so at his/her own peril.

According to the Arkansas Secretary of State, “ILIANA JUDITH RIVERA MS” registered “Aha! Interpreting Solutions” in 2014. At the time of her initial registration, Iliana listed corporate addresses of “2700 PENNY LANE, ROGERS, AR 72758” and “3351 BELINDA LANE, SPRINGDALE, AR 72764.” As of 2019, Iliana’s website lists an address of “202 S Lincoln St, Lowell, AR 72745” which is not actually her address at all; it is the street address of her local post office!

Iliana’s Facebook page specifies a fourth address of “p.o box 473 Lowell, Arkansas 72745” and floats an email address of “iliana@ahainterpreting.com.” A Google search of her cell phone (479-301-4902) led to a $500 “40 Hour Medical Interpreter Standard and Ethic Course” among other things. The Rogers-Lowell  Chamber of Commerce no longer lists Iliana’s events on its website which is not surprising since Iliana’s membership lapsed in  2017 or 2018. (But Iliana’s website contains roughly the same details). Iliana’s website includes a number of emblems and insignia—Rogers-Lowell chamber of commerce, U.S. Department of Labor, and Arkansas Department of Labor—but there is no evidence that she has actual business relationship with these entities.  As of 2021, Iliana’s website lists an address of “2308 SE 28th St, Suite 8, Bentonville, Arkansas 72712” and a new email of info@ahainterpreting.com.