Consumer complaint received 2019-03-15
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: TX
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Getting a loan
Sub-issue: Fraudulent loan

Complaint:
I am an XXXX Veteran, I was lied to that my Tuition Assistance  would have take care of my education. Now I am stuck with this debt. The XXXX XXXX XXXX pressured me into a high expensive private loan ( 6 % ) telling me once my TA will come in that it would pay it off. He also encouraged me to apply for XXXX XXXX, which I never received any of that. I had never used my TA before with the XXXX and I didnt know how it worked. I didnt think the Staff Member would have lied to me and I believed this was true. Once the school started I was unable to request TA because it needed to be approved before I started and the Admissions started me quickly. XXXX XXXX College had high-pressured sales tactics to get students to enroll and remained enrolled. It is proven that XXXX XXXX also deceived and misled students about financial aid options, salary rates after graduation, the transfer of credits, and career placement assistance. I knew I didnt want to stop my education after career point. One of the most important things I asked was if my credits were going to be transferred to other schools so I can continue my education. They assured me that they were all transferable and later found out that no school took my credits to continue my education. After I finished the program there was another 100 % guarantee that there would be job placement. What this meant was me showing up and looking for jobs on their computers. No one guiding me through where to look. I had no experience just the XXXX XXXX  diploma. I finally found a job that wasnt in my program. I was lied to and now I was left with a big loan that TA was supposed to take care of. My personal life is still being affect by these student loans I am unable to pay for. I have defaulted on them numerous of time because I am unable to pay the loan of {$19000.00} back. In XXXX, XXXX XXXX was on local TV news, lamenting the demise of XXXX XXXX, which operated campuses in XXXX XXXX and XXXX, Texas, and XXXX, Oklahoma. Faced with findings by the XXXX Department of Education that XXXX XXXX had engaged in financial aid fraud and mismanagement, and with lawsuits filed by a growing number of his former students, XXXX told an interviewer, None of my salesmen have ever been accused of lying to students. 
Student loans underwater Tuition and fees for XXXX XXXX 's medical assistant certificate program totaled {$19000.00}, according to financial aid documentation in the lawsuit. The interest rate for a roughly {$5900.00} in subsidized loans and {$4600.00} in subsidized loans was described to be 4 percent each. The bulk of the degree would stem from a XXXX XXXX estimated to be more than {$8800.00}. If the total loan package was {$10000.00} and the repayment term was 120 months, which is the standard, the student would pay {$13000.00} over 10 years. But each of the students said they owe {$21000.00} to {$30000.00} in loans, but didn't specify the interest rate. The entry-level salary for XXXX XXXX in the XXXX XXXX XXXX area is only {$21000.00}, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. For experienced workers, the average pay in the local region is {$32000.00}. 
Federal funds not accounted for The U.S. Department of Education confirmed that XXXX XXXX College has not paid credit balances for graduated students, which total {$420000.00} and that the school has not returned {>= $1,000,000} of XXXX  XXXX program funds wired to the school for students who had withdrawn from the college. After XXXX XXXX reported employee mismanagement, the federal agency changed the way it distributed funds to the college from a method that enabled the school to get payments in advance for students to a reimbursement process. In addition, it enacted more monitoring of the college 's financial accounts related to student funds. XXXX XXXX was offered the option to obtain a {$10.00} million letter of credit from a financial institution, or 25 percent of the federal funds it received, which would have enabled it to continue operating under stricter supervision. The company 's XXXX XXXX campus annual revenue was roughly {$20.00} million, but it had a profit margin of less than {$3.00} million each year, according to self-reported state records. The student attorneys in the first case are seeking a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction to stop the school from altering existing documents, transferring money out of the business beyond ordinary transactions and moving assets. 
Students missing money The students ' attorney XXXX XXXX, at XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX asserted that XXXX XXXX employees did not inform students that the college must release funds to students obtained through the XXXX XXXX programs, whether it was grants or loans. Beyond that, some students claimed the funds allotted to them were missing. " Certain plaintiffs never received a penny of their XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX 's use of these funds remains unknown, '' XXXX said in the court documents. " XXXX XXXX even went so far as to charge its own students for appointments with the financial aid office, taking further advantage of their students ' limited financial resources. '' XXXX & XXXX The attorneys allege that even after reporting its own employees misconduct to the U.S. Department of Education, the school continued to enroll new students up until XX/XX/XXXX. " The defendants ' actions are deceptive, fraudulent and were clearly designed to keep the money flowing, '' XXXX argued. " XXXX XXXX promised its students a bright future. Instead it breached its contract with plaintiffs, leaving a dark cloud over their future. '' Furthermore, the attorney claims that XXXX XXXX did not alert Texas authorities that it had been added to the U.S. Department of Education 's heightened cash monitoring list, such as the Texas XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
A former XXXX XXXX admissions employee, XXXX XXXX, complained to Texas authorities in XXXX that she was laid off after four and a half years after she raised concerns about misconduct at the school. ( XXXX provided me with a copy of the complaint that same year. ) Among the bad behavior XXXX alleged in her written complaint to the Texas Workforce Commission : that the school would input grades that did not exist to ensure the student had enough credits to validate collecting more money ; that XXXX XXXX is aware of the Federal Financial Aid Fraud that has taken place in the form of Admissions Reps. instructing students to electronically sign Parent Plus Loans for parents who would not sign ; that Fraudulent Tax Advisor Id Numbers were being used by Admissions to get students through the Federal Financial Aid process when they did not have the adequate documentation ; and that the school allowed enrolling mentally ill students who do not have support groups and whom Admissions had them randomly acquire numbers from phone books to get them through Financial Aid ( FA ) since the Financial Aid form has to have six support group numbers listed. 
XXXX complaint further claimed, In Admissions, we were trained about the sales practice of making a friend to get the students to trust us and then we were supposed to make them feel the pain of how lousy their lives were so that we could then get them to think XXXX XXXX could save them. We were trained that good sales reps. could make the prospective students cry. We were trained that once we broke them down, we could build them back up with the concept that we were there to change their meaningless lives .... If a student came in and completed FA but decided that they wanted to go home to think about it, team leads would be called to do their hard sales pitch. If they were not successful, the prospective student was then taken to the Director of Admissions to be even pressured further. The tactic of making them feel worthless was reiterated until they signed up for school. This was done to mentally ill prospects as well. 
The XXXX complaint also alleged that the school concealed the felony convictions of new students to ensure their eligibility for financial aid. When one graduate complained to the school that she then couldnt get the job she sought because her felony conviction was deemed disqualifying, and then learned that a school official had apparently forged her signature on documents, she filed a police report. According to XXXX XXXX complaint, the school then covered that students loans in exchange for her dropping the charge. 
XXXX further claimed that XXXX XXXX hired its own graduates on campus to increase reported job placement rates ; but, As soon as those students are accounted for as being placed, they are laid off.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation