An online, for-profit school and its parent company have been ordered by the San Diego Superior Court to pay $22.37 million in penalties for defrauding its students, some of whom were military veterans.
Nonprofit veterans advocacy organization Veterans Education Success provided California Attorney General Rob Bonta with several whistleblowers and more than 100 student veterans who brought forward evidence of fraud by Ashford University and its parent company, Zovio Inc.
“This verdict makes clear that Ashford University committed widespread fraud by enticing veterans and other students to enroll in expensive programs that turned out to be worthless,” said Jennifer Esparza, Legal Affairs Director for Veterans Education Success. “The millions of dollars Ashford will pay in fines will not restore the GI Bill benefits that Ashford essentially stole from veteran students.”
Related
San Diego Superior Court Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon wrote in his ruling issued on Monday that the university gave “students false or misleading information about career outcomes, cost and financial aid, pace of degree programs, and transfer credits, in order to entice them to enroll at Ashford.”
Sturgeon also wrote Ashford misrepresented how much financial aid students would receive while downplaying the student loan debt they would incur. Many students dropped out and are left with debt, he said.
The decision came following an 18-day trial with 23 live witnesses, another 17 witnesses who presented via deposition, and more than 1,514 exhibits.
Court documents state that Zovio purchased the Franciscan University of the Prairies, a small religious school in Clinton, Iowa in 2005. That gave it the ability to enroll students at an accredited university and be eligible for financial assistance.
The school was renamed Ashford University and became an online university with more than 80,000 students at its height, court documents said.
Related
“Ashford made false promises to students about the value of an Ashford degree, leaving students with mounting debt, broken promises, and searching for a job,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
Ashford generated hundreds of millions for Zovio, according to court documents, which stated that most of that income came from GI Bill funds and Title IV loans.
A Marine Corps veteran, Esparaza attended Ashford while on active duty using tuition assistance. She said she “quickly realized it was low quality and did not provide the education the recruiter promised. I am so thrilled to see this court decision.”
Sturgeon turned down a request by the state for an injunction on Zovio, saying there was not enough evidence that the problems continue today to warrant that. The University of Arizona has since acquired Ashford and renamed it the University of Arizona Global Campus.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.