Senators Call For Attorney General Investigation Of Corinthian Colleges Failure
Press Release
Citing a claim that the Department of Education has limited tools for holding individual executives responsible for any misconduct of the recently failed Corinthian Colleges, 7 U.S. Senators called it critical that Attorney General Loretta Lynch get to the bottom of whether the for-profit college and its executives violated federal civil or criminal laws.
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Al Franken (D-MN) signed on to the letter.
"Corinthian's collapse over the past year has come at the cost of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars and at the expense of thousands of students who were enticed to enroll in - and to incur massive debt for - failing school programs. At the same time that Corinthian's executives were enriching themselves on federal student loan dollars, with the CEO making an annual salary that exceeded $3 million, allegations of Corinthian's misbehavior grew increasingly widespread," the Senators wrote. "While corporate accountability for Corinthian is important, so is personal accountability for those who led this company."
Yesterday -- one week after closing its remaining 28 campuses and leaving 16,000 students in the lurch -- Corinthian Colleges, Inc. formally filed for bankruptcy. At the time of closure, they were still participating in the federal Title IV program -- receiving taxpayer dollars and in several states, continuing to enroll new students. Corinthian was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and at least 20 state Attorneys General, including Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. They were sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the state Attorneys General of California, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin for false and misleading advertisements. All the while, the institution raked in more than a billion dollars from taxpayers a year.
Source