The Sacramento Bee reports today:
Attorneys for two whistleblowers who were employed by the Unversity of Phoenix, the nation's largest for-profit university, announced a $78.5 million settlement today of a lawsuit they brought in Sacramento federal court under the federal False Claims Act.
The suit, filed in March 2003, alleged that the university defrauded the U. S. Department of Education by obtaining federal student loan and Pell Grant funds based on false statements of compliance with the Higher Education Act.
The act prohibits universities receiving such funds from making incentive payments to recruiters based "directly or indirectly" on the number of students they bring to a school.