Kaplan University is a criminal enterprise that must be indicted under the RICO Act
EducationAug 11, 2010If you have read my article on Kaplan University: Blood Bank for the Washington Post you will see that the Post is being kept alive by the Kaplan subsidiary.
Yet Kaplan University is a criminal enterprise. Not only should it be shut down but it should be prosecuted under the federal RICCO Act for criminal conspiracy, fraud, larceny, misrepresentation and more claims of criminal foul play.
In the next week I will be publishing a story about Kaplan University but specifically about CHI/Kaplan the the Surge Tech program that Kaplan ran for some ten years. There, I will allege with proof and documentation that Kaplan stole Title IV monies kowingly and with intent and malice of forethought from students; that they beguiled students into entering into a program that required an ‘externship’ that Kaplan knew they could not provide and that Kaplan took their Title IV monies and left them with little more than a nightmare and in debt. Kaplan then gave students ‘leaves of absences’ to get around the federal law regarding enrollment so they would not have to drop students and violate the law against high default rates. This would have meant no Title IV Monies. Kaplan would then not be able to be the large rainmaker for the Washington Post, the stocks would plummet (WPO) and the paper no doubt fold.
The students that were predated by Kaplan were mostly women (poor or working class latina and black women) and close to 300 of them were dropped — flushed down the toilet — from this CHI/Kaplan Surg Tech program in Pennsylvania.
Kaplan knew exactly what they were doing, how to get around the law to get their greedy hands on your tax money in the form of Title IV funds, and then leave close to three hundred (300 minority women) students in default of their loans — loans that cannot be disharged in bankruptcy, loans that you pay for through tax subsidies and loans that these students will owe for life.
The students not only owe monies for life, debt peonage, but now have their credit destroyed, cannot rent homes, get credit, or participate in economic life. They are ruined by a criminal conspiracy operating under a business plan by Kaplan.
I will divulge the specifics of the criminal behavior, names, dates, instances of fraud, how the Surge Tech program worked next week. You will then see the “hell” that is Kaplan University and understand the vampiric economic practices it engages in to break students legs, go through their pockets and like parasites looking for a host, search out their arteries.
In the interim, take a look at how Kaplan, Blood Bank for Donald Graham, President of the Washington Post (WOP), a publicly traded corporation works.
Kaplan now has plans for partnering with the Caifornia Junior Colleges, threatening to swallow up the public sector in their criminal enterprise.
That is unless we stop them. If you have any information on the CHI/Kaplan program or any other information, please let me know. My e-mail is posted at this website. Everything remains confidential as it has for this upcoming article. No names are revealed. But without a Wikileaks on Kaplan we cannot shut it down and prosecute it. That is why we need you, your anonymity will always remain but documentation is what is needed.
Please help, Kaplan is crawling out of its coffin 24/7 and vampiring mostly poor, working class and minority students. They need your help.
sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/pembroke-pines/fl-kaplan-for-profit-investigation-20100805,0,7297093.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Kaplan College suspends admissions at Pembroke Pines campus following federal investigation
By Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel
, August 5, 2010
Kaplan College in Pembroke Pines suspends enrollment following federal investigation
In an unprecedented move for the for-profit higher education industry, Kaplan College in Pembroke Pines has stopped enrolling new students after federal investigators uncovered incidents of high pressure and potentially fraudulent and misleading sales tactics.
A second Kaplan campus in Riverside, Calif., also put new admissions on hold, pending the results of an internal investigation.
Among the incidents uncovered at the Pembroke Pines location, an admissions officer falsely told an applicant that the school had the same accreditation as Harvard and the University of Florida. The officer wouldn’t let the applicant speak to a financial aid representative until she signed an enrollment contract. And he told her not to worry about repaying student loans because “tomorrow’s never promised.”
Enrollment in for-profit colleges has grown from about 365,000 to almost 1.8 million in the last few years, federal officials said. In 2009, students at for-profit colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
During its investigation, agents for the Government Accountability Office posed as applicants at 15 randomly selected for-profit colleges. Using a hidden camera, agents also found potentially fraudulent practices at an unspecified MedVance location in Florida and one school each in Washington, D.C., and California.
“I continue to be amazed by the questionable, and sometimes outright illegal, practices occurring within the for-profit sector,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D- Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which heard the report Wednesday. “Critics say that it is only a few bad apples, but we need to take a hard look at the entire orchard.”
Kaplan Inc., which is owned by the Washington Post Co., has about 50,000 students in its colleges, universities and online programs.
Kaplan officials said they found the disclosures “sickening.” “They violate in every way the principles on which Kaplan is run,” said a joint statement from Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co., and Andrew S. Rosen, chairman and chief executive of Kaplan Inc. “We will do everything in our power to eliminate such conduct from Kaplan’s education institutions.”
Officials said they will take “all necessary actions — including termination — with respect to any employee found to be in violation of our clearly outlined standards and the code of conduct.”
In addition to the Pembroke Pines campus, the company has student locations in Plantation, Delray Beach and Jacksonville, although most Florida students take classes online. The company also has a large administrative office in Fort Lauderdale.
The Pembroke Pines campus opened in January 2010 and has about 160 students, company officials said. It offers degrees and certificates in such areas as medical practice management, criminal justice and information technology. Current students at Kaplan schools will not be affected, company officials said.
Officials from MedVance, which is based in Baltimore, could not be reached for comment. The company specializes in training for careers in health-related professions.They have locations in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Stuart.
The Governmental Accountability Office reported all 15 schools investigated had instances of questionable sales practices, which some say is an indication of widespread problems within the for-profit sector.
“So many publicly traded companies have incredible unrealistic growth expectations,” said David Hawkins, director of Public Policy and Research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “Wall Street expects quarter after quarter of growth, so the schools feel pressure to shove in enrollment, and you get an untenable situation.”
Federal law prohibits admissions officers from being paid solely by the number of students they enroll, but the law does allow it to be a factor. And experts say it’s a huge factor at many of these schools.
“The admissions officers are nothing but paid recruiters,” said John W. Andrews, a Tampa lawyer who has represented some former employees who have sued Kaplan.
The Senate committee said it plans to request extensive documents from 30 companies operating for-profit schools.
The federal investigators have referred the four cases of potential fraud to the Department of Education’s inspector general. The Florida Department of Education also has contacted Kaplan and MedVance, but wouldn’t say whether it’s taking any action, said Sam Ferguson, executive director of the Commission for Independent Education.
Hawkins said he thinks the investigation will lead to reforms in the industry.
The findings concerned Kathy Mizereck, executive director of Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools & Colleges., which advocates for Florida’s for-profit schools. She said she doesn’t think these problems exist at all for-profit schools.
“Whether or not someone feels too much pressure to enroll a student probably depends on the individual,” she said. “But there are lines that people should not be crossing. This is a reminder that we need to stay on the right side of the lines.”
See the GAO reoprt and video at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-948T
See the GAO reoprt and video at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-948T
I know my friend Angelique emailed you monday. I am also a victim to the Kaplan monster and I have a lot of information and proof to back my self up and I wanted to thank you for your article. I am taken them down with or without any help.
Washington Post” from 27 July 2010. I am a former student of Kaplan and
am in contact with an attorney who is in the process of pursuing a class
action lawsuit against the facility. I cannot even begin to describe
what I experienced there as it was more like an episode of “The Twilight
Zone” rather than an educational experience.
nicely with some of the things you wrote about in the above article
(great job BTW!). If you are interested in what my experience was, I
just recently finished a summary to my ……… that I could share
with you. The main points are included in the letter, but there was so
much that happened in the 10 months that I was enrolled that it is
impossible to compile without writing a novel. My experience included
everything from financial aid fraud, plagiarism, professors lacking
basic writing skills, students that should not be in a college
environment, deception in each department, quizzes that could be taken
over and over until achieving 100%, grading leniently (this is an
understatement), and so much more.