Corinthian Colleges Inc. was a for-profit college that scammed thousands of students with worthless degrees and fake job prospects. Corinthian announced yesterday that it will completely shut down after no one wanted to buy its remaining campuses, reported The Huffington Post.
Now that Corinthian is closing, 16,000 students will be left without a school and the U.S. Department of Education is on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in foregone student loans.
Instead of offering worthwhile education to students who wanted to succeed in life, Corinthian Colleges Inc. was actually a greedy diploma mill that created a cycle of unemployable, indebted students. Because Corinthian created so much debt, if the company doesn’t pay the Department of Education, the American taxpayers will pay the price.
“For too many students, Corinthian turned the American dream of higher ed into a nightmare of debt & despair,” said Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The HuffPo further noted that Corinthian Colleges Inc. lied about graduation and job placement rates and manipulated students into spending thousands of dollars on “dubious” degrees. Because of its dishonesty, Corinthian also managed to cheat the federal government out of $1.4 billion dollars in federal aid money.
Despite the federal government cracking down on Corinthian and exposing proof of the company’s wanton behavior, Corinthian executives still insist that no wrongdoing was committed.
“We believe that we have attempted to do everything within our power to provide a quality education and an opportunity for a better future for our students,” said Corinthian’s chief executive, Jack Massimino.
“Unfortunately, the current regulatory environment would not allow us to complete a transaction with several interested parties that would have allowed for a seamless transition for our students. I would like to thank our employees for their selfless dedication and commitment to fulfilling the educational and career goals of all our students.”
There are so many lies in Massimino’s statement. The company is trying to portray itself as the victim while doubling down on the lie that they helped its students. What’s worse is that the company tried to make the regulators look like the bad guy, insisting that the regulators hurt the students.
Corinthian Colleges Inc. is shutting down, and this is a victory for consumer protection and regulation. A filthy company was caught defrauding consumers and the government and must now pay the price. Someone really should have gone to jail, though.
