The for-profit college company, Education Management Corporation, will pay $95.5 million to resolve a 2007 whistleblower lawsuit that said the company illegally paid recruiters based on the number of students they recruited, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced at a press conference on Nov. 16.

The “landmark settlement,” the largest False Claims Act settlement ever with a for-profit college, is “a historic step forward in our collective ongoing fight against fraudulent and abusive practices in the for-profit college industry,” Lynch said.

The Justice Department sued the company, also known as EDMC, in 2011 after joining a civil lawsuit filed four years earlier by two whistleblowers. The government claims the Pittsburgh-based company paid recruiters to enroll students regardless of their qualifications; misled students about their student loans; and hid key information from auditors and accreditors.

EDMC is the country’s second-largest for-profit college system, with four higher education systems under its auspices: Argosy University, The Art Institutes, Brown Mackie College and South University. It operates 110 campuses in 32 states and Canada, as well as online programs, and enrolls 100,000 students.

Huffington Post, Nov. 14, 16
Business Insider, Nov. 16