Dive Brief:
- Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the for-profit MInnesota School of Business and its sister school, Globe University. Both are based in Woodbury, MN, and have 12 campuses and an online division in the state.
- The lawsuit claims that the two schools misled criminal-justice students about their job prospects after graduation, deceived the students about their ability to transfer credits to other schools, and used high-pressure sales tactics to recruit them.
- In a statement, school officials said the lawsuit’s allegations “could not be further from the truth,” that the schools have cooperated with an investigation by the state attorney general’s office, and that the attorney general has been “unusually and unfairly critical.”
Dive Insight:
Swanson said in a press conference that the schools’ never-take-no-for-an-answer recruiting tactics were almost identical to those of penny stock sales boiler rooms, the Star Tribune reports. She played a clip from “The Wolf of Wall Street” showing sales language nearly identical to that described in the training manual for the schools’ admissions sales staff. According to Swanson, the goal was to push students into degree programs that cost $35,000 to $70,000 but don’t provide certification needed for jobs in Minnesota. The schools said in a written statement that admissions staff members explain to students that the program doesn’t fulfill the requirements to become a police officer in Minnesota.
