The Attorney General of California has filed a lawsuit against Ashford University, a for-profit school, for engaging in unlawful business practices, including illegal debt collection activities.
Ashford representatives are accused of threatening students and imposing unlawful debt collection fees, among a host of other allegations.
The school misrepresented the amount of financial aid available to students, how many of the students’ credits would be eligible to be transferred to the school, and inflating the job placement statistics of graduates in different fields of study, including social work, nursing, medical billing, and teaching.
Admissions representatives described the atmosphere within their department as a “boiler room.”
In trying to collect on unpaid fees and tuition, the school would automatically add a 33.3% collection fee on top of the unpaid balance, regardless of whether the collection agency was successful in recovering any unpaid funds.
The school also violated state law in California by telling students they bore the full responsibility to pay unlawful collection fees in the event their account was placed with a collection agency.
Individuals who bounced checks to the school were assessed a fee of $30, when state law in California caps the amount that can be charged for a bad check at $25.
A copy of the complaint can be accessed here
