It’s uncertain how soon criminal justice students defrauded by Globe University and Minnesota School of Business might be able to get tuition refunds, now that the defunct schools have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Lori Swanson, who sued Globe when she was Minnesota attorney general, says one option: the law allows federal student loans to be forgiven if a school has ripped off a student. “Certainly members of Congress, our congressional delegation from Minnesota, could ask the Department of Education to expedite that,” she says.
Swanson says another option is for the state to bring a legal case against the school’s owners and officers for fraudulent action on loans that the school had made to its top officials. She says, “I think shortly after the judgment came down, the schools basically wrote off those I-O-U’s, or forgave the loans, so that the five family members didn’t have to pay the loans back anymore.”
Swanson calls Globe’s bankruptcy filing is “very disappointing” and says the school has taken every opportunity to delay the case at every step.
The courts allowed former students to make claims for restitution after finding that Globe and Minnesota School of Business didn’t tell criminal justice students their degrees would not meet requirements for becoming police and probation officers in Minnesota. About 13-hundred students are affected. The state and federal governments also have claims against Globe and M-S-B.