US Gov Sues The Art Institutes for $11 Billion Fraud

[tinrobot]

The Art Institutes, one of the nation’s largest for-profit school systems where people can receive an education in photography, has come under fire. Last month, the US Department of Justice filed a massive lawsuit against the company behind the schools, Education Management Corporation, accusing it of fraudulently collecting $11 billion in government aid by recruiting low-income students for the purpose of collecting student aid money. Whistleblowers claim that students graduate loaded with debt and without the means to pay off the loans, which are then paid for with taxpayer dollars.


http://www.petapixel.com/2011/09/02/us-gov-sues-the-art-institutes-for-11-billion-fraud/

[WhiteTara]

1. That's a lot of money. If they could stop these frauds and

get the money back; well that should help our finances. Go DOJ!

[Rex]

2. They need to go after these fly-by-night DeVry type for-profit schools imo.

If you invent a school just to scam money from young people, well then you might be a criminal in need of some long jailtime imo.

[villager]

3. in a bid to appear respectable, DeVry demands drug tests of all their teachers. Even the online ones

It would seem to be a case of "missing the point entirely." As well as insuring you're driving better teachers elsewhere.

[Rex]

4. I can't stand corporate schools.

A horrible idea that will help destroy higher education imo.

[Broderick]

5. I am paying my daughters massive student loan bills

from this hook and crook school. Against my advisement she wanted to go there, and now after 3 years she got a job delivering food to tables. sigh.

[juajen]

6. Why are you paying it. She is and should be responsible for

her school loans. I'm certainly not responsible for my child's student loans. Unless, of course, you are responsible for these loans, having borrowed the money for her?

[Broderick]

8. I promised to help pay for her schooling

and she has no means at this point to repay anything, lone enough keep food on her table and a roof over her head. I don't mind helping her, but I think they wasted her time at the school. The tuition is extremely high for what I consider a trade school. And like so many of the people she got to know attending; none have jobs in the field they went to school for.

[Rex]

9. Yet the commercials they air ALWAYS say you will 'get a job

with one of our handy dandy diplomas!' Maybe she can get a class action suit going for false advertisement?

[Broderick]

12. Maybe this whole thing is a beginning look into

something like that happening. Funny thing about class action suits though, is that it mostly ingratiates the lawyers. I just got one on my desk about Ice I bought in 2008 or 2009. There is an award judgement of so many millions and to apply for the funds they want receipts from purchases I made for ice in those years and in certain months. The utter dog work to pull records from those years is not worth the mere pittance I would receive back. So in the reading, beyond legal fees and legal payment is the effort worth the 20-30 bucks I might receive? No. And they know that. The unrewarded funds will sit in their bank or some such thing I am sure.

[GReedDiamond]

19. I once attended a trade school...

...an audio/video recording engineering program.

I had a $6000 loan to go through the (what was supposed to be) nine month course.

The school closed after the owner, an Indian national, stole around a quarter million of the tuition dollars, and fled to India.

It took sixteen years, and I was continually harassed by collection agencies to pay back what had by then become over $23,000 in interest and penalties on the original amount, but I eventually won my case and had the loan, plus all interest and penalties, discharged. I also had over $4000 which had been taken from tax refunds returned to me.

I would suggest that, based on the Government fraud case against this "school," that you try to dispute the loan amount and see if you may get it discharged, or at least mitigate the damages somewhat.

Good luck, and I hope your daughter's situation gets better, soon.

[saras]

7. These schools serve their purpose - to keep the lower classes out of the ranks of the "educated"

[Exilednight]

10. I wish they'd go after the Phoenix schools. n/t

[elehhhhna]

14. lol, owned by Carlyle. never happen...

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. For what? nt

[Exilednight]

23. Watch the PBS Frontline report, then you'll know why.

[Starry Messenger]

11. k&r!!

I hate these schools.

[Nostradammit]

13. Really glad to see this.

I got f*cked over by this "school" back in the early '80s and have been
hoping since that their karma would catch up.

Looks like it has.

[sammytko]

21. So did my niece

She went back in the 80s and is going to a real university now. None of her credits transferred and she doesn't understand why. I wont tell her that it was and is a sham school cuz she will not believe me.

[Scurrilous]

15. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

17. All For-Profit colleges are scams.

[Umbral]

18. Next, they should find out who is financing the endless stream of ads touting online colleges...

No legitimate educational institution I'm familiar with could afford that kind of ad space; most for-profit businesses couldn't afford it either.

[indepat]

20. A microcosm of for-profit educational ventures where most funding is provided

by Uncle Sam and students are saddled with debt they haven't a chinaman's chance of being able to pay? Ain't American-style capitalism grand, especially these types of entities and the contractor system in Afghan and Iraq, in particular those contractors operating under no-bid contracts? :patriot:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

22. for-profit schools are a total ripoff.

You can get a good education at your local community college. I got a vocational associate's degree from my local community college. I worked in the field for almost 20 years but the stress and burnout was horrific.
I also have a B.A. and a J.D. (law degree) and have never gotten a job with either of them since our country throws away talented and educated people.

DH got a music and video business degree from the art institute, diff branch than the one sued, in 1994, made straight A's and basically knew more than the professors, from his home recording experience.

And he is now drawing Social Security at 65, and they are taking his student loan money out of his Social Security. They draw cartoons about old people paying on student loans, but it is NOT a joke. It's happening to him.

I wish they would sue the entire company for fraud. DH was in a 200-plaintiff lawsuit against the local school, but the lawyers got so much of the money that he would have gotten a few hundred dollars, not nearly his whole tuition back. He was quite disgusted. He was the oldest student in the lawsuit by far.

We also ate dinner at the local Art Institute Culinary Arts school one time. DH had to run home to take care of nature's calling, and I had the worst stomachache I've ever had in my life. They combine weird ingredients. I couldn't eat most of it and had to send the steak back to be cooked properly. They had a fruit compote with licorice liqueur on it. I hate licorice.