South Dakota-based National American University is facing a class-action lawsuit for defrauding hundreds of its students, according to a Fox 4 TV report.
Earlier this week, six more students joined the lawsuit filed by two students in the Jackson County Circuit Court, who are suing the school for “fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy” and violating of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.”
The lawsuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages alleges the for-profit school of luring the students through deceptive marketing and recruiting schemes and enticing them to apply for federal student loan programs that they can’t payback.
“Collectively, we believe these tactics have systematically driven National American University’s enrollment practices and worked to the company’s great financial benefit, at the expense of its students, the federal government and the American taxpayers,” said Andrew K. Smith, attorney for Humphrey, Farrington & McClain, the firm representing the plaintiffs.
Furthermore, the school is accused of lying about the cost of attending the college, the quality of programs and staff and employment prospects after graduation.
Lately, the school has closed many of its physical campuses amid declining enrollments and financial troubles.
“All of that waste and time, lingering on that they did to us, played a major part in me not having my career now, my degree now,” NAU student Zaimah Muhammad told Fox 4 TV.
“It was humiliating to me once everything came together. I’m like, wow. National American University was bogus, a hoax,” Muhammad said.
The Department of Education and its Secretary Betsy DeVos is long accused of not processing the claims of loan forgiveness under the Obama-era Borrower Defense Regulations, aimed at providing relief to debt-ridden students defrauded by higher education programs.
In June, 160,000 former for-profit college students sued the Education department in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for failing to cancel their debts. Plaintiffs accused the department of “intentionally” ignoring students’ claims, not taking action to resolve them, and forcibly collecting loans that may not be valid.
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