Original Story:
INDIANAPOLIS — They said they were defrauded, and now they want a seat at the table.
Last week, a group of former ITT Tech students moved to establish themselves as creditors in the school's bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
On Jan. 3, five former students filed a 109-page complaint, seeking to act as representatives for hundreds of thousands who say they have been defrauded by the Carmel, Ind.-based school. Their goal is to have the debt they owe the school canceled. A Newark class action lawyer is following this story closely.
ITT filed for bankruptcy last year after the Education Department cut off the company’s access to federal student aid.
By the time it declared bankruptcy in September, ITT Tech had been subject to lawsuits from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Massachusetts and New Mexico attorneys general.
ITT Tech students unsure about next step after closure Government agencies scrutinized the company over alleged failure to disclose bad loans to investors, inflated job placement numbers and aggressive recruiting tactics.
The students' complaint seeks to establish that ITT defrauded students who attended the school during the last 10 years.
The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School is representing the students. Eileen Connor, director of litigation for the center's Project on Predatory Student Lending, is the lead attorney representing the students. She was unavailable for comment. A Los Angeles bankruptcy attorney is reviewing the details of this case.
Along with legal documents, the students filed more than a thousand pages of first-hand accounts from 541 fellow students who attended ITT, affidavits from several whistleblowers and evidence developed from state and federal law enforcement investigations.
Hundreds of unidentified Indiana students gave testimony about how the loans they racked up while attending the school ruined their credit scores, left them destitute and caused them mental health issues.
One student who was enrolled in the criminal justice program at the Carmel campus from September 2010 to January 2012 said, “I’ve been in financial hardship since then. I do not earn much in my current job. I work as a grocery stocker, and most of my check goes to paying off my loan. I had my hours cut about a year ago, and this led me to default on my loan, which has affected me greatly because I am not eligible for credit anywhere. My credit score is horrible because of this school. I cannot afford anything. I can barely make ends meet.”
Testimonials have come from throughout the U.S. One student who was enrolled in ITT's Network System Administration program at a Washington campus stated, "I joined the Army to pay for school, and ITT Tech mislead my dreams of higher education. Now I'm $10,000 in debt and have nothing to show for it. I'm constantly being harassed by collection agencies and it's making me depressed."
Students who have their pay garnished to satisfy loans are often struggling to support themselves with low-wage or minimum-wage jobs that are a far cry from the high-salary positions promised by ITT recruiters, according to the complaint.
ITT Tech was one of the country’s largest for-profit college chains. Over the last decade, it took in more than $11 billion in revenue, 98% of which came in the form of tuition, according to the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. The center said 76% of the tuition was paid through federal student aid.
Originally part of the conglomerate ITT, the school spun off as its own publicly traded entity in 1999.
At the time of bankruptcy, the company operated 137 campuses in 39 states, providing career-oriented programs to 43,000 students under the names ITT Technical Institute and Daniel Webster College.
ITT's closure displaced more than 35,000 students and more than 8,000 employees.
ITT reported assets of $389 million and liabilities of $1.1 billion to the bankruptcy court. The company’s assets include almost $80 million owed by ITT students who were enrolled at the time of the bankruptcy filing.
The students request a court order certifying the case as a class action, an injunction ordering ITT from collecting on all private student loans administered by ITT, actual and compensatory damages against ITT in an amount to be determined and an order awarding disbursements, costs and attorney's fees.
Deborah J. Caruso, the Chapter 7 trustee appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to oversee the liquidation, responded to the students' lawsuit in an email.
“Since the filing of these Chapter 7 cases in September, we have been working with state regulators, the SEC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Education to better understand and address the causes of ITT’s collapse and develop a path forward,” Caruso said.
11 January 2017
MARISSA MAYER TO LEAVE YAHOO BOARD; YAHOO TO CHANGE NAME TO ALTABA
Original Story: www.wsj.com
Yahoo Inc. said Monday it will whittle down its board after completing its deal with Verizon Communications Inc., and several longtime directors, including Chief Executive Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo, will step down as directors.
After the sale of its core internet business, the company will change its name to Altaba Inc. from RemainCo, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing. Altaba’s remaining assets include Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan. The name is a combination of the words “alternate” and “Alibaba,” a person familiar with the matter said.
Eric Brandt, who joined Yahoo’s board last March and is the former chief financial officer of Broadcom Corp., will become chairman of Altaba, according to the filing. He will be joined by four other directors who are currently on Yahoo’s board, including Thomas McInerney, who was part of the independent committee of Yahoo directors running the auction process last year.
The moves would happen after the closing of the roughly $4.8 billion sale to Verizon, which has been endangered by two huge hacks of Yahoo’s user data. In the filing, Yahoo said Verizon could terminate its purchase of Yahoo or renegotiate the terms because of the hacks. A New York cybersecurity lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Verizon has become less certain that the deal will go through after a second breach of one billion accounts was revealed last month. The breaches could be a material event that would allow Verizon to change the terms of the deal, executives have said.
Still, analysts say most of Yahoo’s value stems from its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, not the core business sold to Verizon. The core business accounts for 10% of Yahoo’s market value, Evercore ISI analyst Ken Sena wrote in a Dec. 15 note. About 61% of Yahoo’s worth is tied to its stake in Alibaba, while 13% is linked to Yahoo Japan Corp., Mr. Sena wrote.
On Monday, Yahoo’s shares rose a penny to $41.35 in recent after-hours trading and Verizon’s are down three cents to $52.65.
Six Yahoo directors will be leaving after the Verizon sale, including Ms. Mayer, Mr. Filo and Maynard Webb Jr., a director since February 2012, who was named chairman in August 2013. Mr. Webb, as of Monday, became chairman emeritus.
Also leaving the board will be Jane Shaw, a former pharmaceutical industry executive who joined in 2014, as well as media executive Eddy Hartenstein and Richard Hill, former CEO of Novellus Systems Inc.
Ms. Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo after she came over from Google in 2012. She is expected to remain with Yahoo once it becomes part of Verizon. A New York truck accident lawyer is following this story closely.
Messrs. Hartenstein and Hill joined Yahoo’s board in early 2016 after being nominated by hedge fund Starboard Value LP. Two others nominated by Starboard, former banker Tor Braham and Starboard chief executive Jeffrey Smith, will stay on the board of Altaba.
At that time, the activist investor sought to replace the entire slate of directors, saying the board wasn’t making changes quickly enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
