TOTALLY GEEKED!

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Did Donald Trump Run a Scam University?

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Sorry, that's how it copied. The link is much easier to read. But you asked me to start a new thread...

ed11563 · Guru

Did Donald Trump Run a Scam University?

By Jillian Kay Melchior — July 16, 2015

In June 2009, Richard and Shelly Hewson paid the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, an educational venture owned by businessman and now–presidential candidate Donald Trump, $21,490 for classes that promised to teach them how to flip homes for profit. They ponied up the high price “because we had faith in Donald Trump,” Richard wrote in a January 2015 affidavit. “We thought that if this was his program, we would be learning to do real estate deals from his people who knew his techniques.”

What did the New Jersey couple get for shelling out more than $20,000 to a business bearing the famous Trump name? An instructor took them on a field trip to see dilapidated homes in rough Philadelphia neighborhoods, never bothering to explain how to reliably find properties to sell for a profit.

“We realized that Trump was not teaching us how to find these needles in a haystack,” Richard Hewson’s affidavit says. “We concluded that we had paid over $20,000 for nothing, based on our belief in Donald Trump and the promises made at the [organization’s] free seminar and three-day workshop.”

“We never tried to get our money back because at that point we thought the whole thing was a scam and that we would not be able to fight Donald Trump,” Hewson wrote.

Now Trump is fighting more than a dozen other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, making his pitch on his business record and the respect it’s garnered him from millions of voters. But will his image as a peerless, productive entrepreneur suffer because of allegations that one of his businesses — one that promised to help ordinary Americans achieve success like his — amounted to a scam?

The Hewsons are not alone: A class-action lawsuit in California and an ongoing civil suit brought by New York State allege that the now-defunct Trump University, later known as the Trump Entrepreneur Institute, defrauded up to 5,000 students, who paid as much as $35,000 to learn Trump’s real-estate investment strategies and techniques.

The venture was, as Trump enterprises go, not especially large — the New York complaint alleges Trump University earned about $40 million in revenue between 2005 and 2011. It’s just one of many businesses whose main selling point is Trump’s brand, a successful synthesis of prestige and up-by-your-bootstraps American entrepreneurship, quite at odds with the picture that recipients of a Trump education paint.

Last October, a New York trial court ruled that Trump University and Donald Trump personally were liable for restitution for all students who had taken the course since May 2010, “because it was operating illegally without a state license,” according to the attorney general’s office.

Trump representatives claim “there’s no merit to these allegations whatsoever.” Alan Garten, executive vice president and general counsel for the Trump Organization, says former students brought suit “completely [out of] a financial motivation.”

The courses, he says, were “done in a first-class manner, and the materials were high-quality and first-rate.”

According to the lawsuits, Trump University aggressively marketed a 90-minute free seminar that would reveal Trump’s real-estate investing secrets. “My hand-picked instructors will share my techniques, which took my entire career to develop,” said one mass mailer bearing Trump’s signature and offering two free VIP tickets to the event.

At the seminar, sales representatives were waiting, reportedly tasked with persuading attendees to pay an additional $1,495 for a three-day conference (which the Hewsons signed up for) that would provide “the last real-estate education you will ever need for the rest of your life.” According to New York State’s complaint, “Trump University speakers repeatedly insinuated that Donald Trump would appear at the three-day seminar, claiming that he ‘is going to be in town’ or ‘often drops by’ and ‘might show up’ or had just left.”

But instead of getting a personal lesson from Trump, both cases claim, those who signed up got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of him — and then, the “faculty” allegedly subjected them to another sales pitch, aimed at persuading attendees to sign up for a $34,995 “Gold Elite Program,” which they said would include special training, mentorship, and access to alternative financing sources for real-estate deals.

Using high-pressure techniques, the complainants allege, salesmen tried to pressure attendees into charging the $34,995 to their credit cards.

“Trump University even provided handouts with scripted talking points for students to use in their phone calls with credit-card companies, explicitly encouraging people to falsify their current income, ‘add[ing] projected income from our future real estate venture[s],’ and to deceive credit card companies by declaring income streams from corporate entities that had not been created, with the script telling students: ‘If they ask you to prove income, inform them that it will be too much trouble to put all the paperwork together,’” New York State’s complaint says.

Garten says: “There was no high-pressure sales techniques — that’s crazy. . . . Were there efforts to sell the course? Yes. . . . We think it provides people with real benefits. [But] no one was compelled or coerced to do that. It’s laughable. People can make their own decision.”

New York State alleges that some students wiped out their savings or went heavily into debt to cover the cost of the courses, which seem to have rarely delivered on the lofty promises.

The New York suit, led by Democratic attorney general Eric Schneiderman, says many of the so-called faculty “came to Trump University from jobs having little to do with real estate investments, and some came to Trump University shortly after their real-estate investing caused them to go into bankruptcy.” (Garten says the course materials were “prepared by leaders in the field,” including Ivy League professors.)

Trump’s camp points to surveys conducted by attendees that reportedly show a 98 percent approval rating, but New York State alleged that some students felt pressured by their teachers to provide high rankings or were asked to rate the course before they had even completed it.

National Review did find some former students who said they were satisfied with their Trump University experience.

“It gave me the guidelines and knowledge to enter real-estate investment, and it was helpful for me,” says Jorge Carlos Guillen, a realtor in Virginia and Maryland. “For me, it was not a scam. I paid $10,000 for it, and I got that money back pretty quickly.”

Mark Gordon, owner of MG Real Estate Solutions and Mark Gordon Properties Inc., says he paid for the whole $34,995 class and was satisfied: “Helpful would be an understatement.”

“You pay your money and take your chances, and you’d better go into these kinds of things with your eyes wide open,” Gordon says. “I don’t think [Trump is] a scam artist, and I don’t have a beef with this. Some people are very unhappy, and I get that: They spent a lot of money. [But] there was never any implied guarantee that you take their training and you’re going to make millions. I never got that.”

New York State has alleged that Trump’s for-profit educational company operated there between 2005 and 2011 despite repeated warnings from the state’s education department that it’s illegal to run an unchartered, unlicensed university. The state court has not yet determined how much restitution Trump University will have to pay. The trial court authorized Trump’s legal team to depose each of the estimated 5,000 consumers potentially eligible for money.

The Trump Organization maintains that it was upfront about what the school was. “At no time did we ever represent that it was a certified institution,” Garten says. “It’s not like we were operating in the dark. We were open and notorious. We advertised it quite extensively. People knew exactly what we were doing, including the [state] department of education, and they were fine with it.”

In October, New York State supreme-court justice Cynthia S. Kern decided that that Trump had violated state education law, writing, “It is undisputed that Mr. Trump never complied with licensing requirements.” Because of the statute of limitations, the state could not seek restitution throughout the entire time Trump operated without a license, just from 2010 onward.

The ongoing lawsuits against Trump University may prove uncomfortable for Donald Trump as he embarks on a presidential campaign. Many of his businesses, like Trump University, derive their success from his brand, and yet other Trump business practices — such as his unsuccessful casinos in New Jersey’s Atlantic City and his firms’ alleged hiring of illegal immigrants on construction projects — have come under scrutiny, too. A number of Trump ventures have gone bankrupt in spectacular fashion, and even his net worth has been a matter of controversy: In a recent press release, Trump claimed his worth to be $10 billion, but Forbes magazine has pegged it at just $4 billion.

The press release was prompted by Trump’s filing financial-disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission, which is required for participation for the first Republican presidential debate, on August 6. There’s more news forthcoming, though, thanks to the Trump U lawsuits: A California federal judge ruled earlier this month that Trump has to testify on August 10 about both his net worth and his earnings from the real-estate classes.

— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for National Review as a Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow for the Franklin Center.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Thanks ed. Yours came out much much easier on the eyes.

burns07 · Guru

there isn't enough space on this board to post all the criminal/suspicious/corrupt acts of the clintons--all the way back to whitewater and before--vince foster, mickey leland, on and on--back to slick willie's corrupt acts( and hillary's complicity) in company with the perdue family in arkansas--nearly fifty years of deceit and corruption--and willful obstruction ( both of them guilty of perjury ) and death

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

So that makes it okay? I really hate that attitude. I don't want another president who feels like he can skirt the rules and do whatever he wants even if it means breaking the law. I don't like when someone brings up something Trump (or another Republican has done) and everyone just blows it off because "Well, Obama, Bill, and Hillary broke the law." YES! They DID. We need someone who WON'T.

weltschmerz · Guru

burns07 wrote:

there isn't enough space on this board to post all the criminal/suspicious/corrupt acts of the clintons--all the way back to whitewater and before--vince foster, mickey leland, on and on--back to slick willie's corrupt acts( and hillary's complicity) in company with the perdue family in arkansas--nearly fifty years of deceit and corruption--and willful obstruction ( both of them guilty of perjury ) and death

Oh Lord! .Can you not comment on the article?

ed11563 · Guru

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:
Thanks ed. Yours came out much much easier on the eyes.

I found a "print" icon at the top of the article, clicked the icon so it would come up in a printable format, told it to not print, then control +A to highlight the printable text, then copied and posted.

Usually the hard part is locating that "print" icon to click.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Well thank you. I appreciate it.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

" did find some former students who said they were satisfied with their Trump University experience. “It gave me the guidelines and knowledge to enter real-estate investment, and it was helpful for me,” says Jorge Carlos Guillen, a realtor in Virginia and Maryland. “For me, it was not a scam. I paid $10,000 for it, and I got that money back pretty quickly.” Mark Gordon, owner of MG Real Estate Solutions and Mark Gordon Properties Inc., says he paid for the whole $34,995 class and was satisfied: “Helpful would be an understatement.” “You pay your money and take your chances, and you’d better go into these kinds of things with your eyes wide open,”"

There isn't anything on the planet where you aren't going to have unhappy people.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

weltschmerz wrote:
burns07 wrote:

there isn't enough space on this board to post all the criminal/suspicious/corrupt acts of the clintons--all the way back to whitewater and before--vince foster, mickey leland, on and on--back to slick willie's corrupt acts( and hillary's complicity) in company with the perdue family in arkansas--nearly fifty years of deceit and corruption--and willful obstruction ( both of them guilty of perjury ) and death

Oh Lord! .Can you not comment on the article?

Seriously? The entire Obama campaign was "Well Bush did it or it is Bush's fault".

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

So the courts of NY can determine if anything needs to be done about it.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

And, let's face it. The Federal Govt runs the biggest scam of them all. Taking money from hardworking people with a lot of false promises.

huskerbb · Guru

.....haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate....

....but Trump's just gonna shake it off, shake it off.....

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

This complaint could be made about just about any school. You pay your money, but you are not guaranteed an outcome. You have to study, apply what you learn and you still are not guaranteed a job or salary.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Well, the fact that he hid this and they found out about it during the very first debate is telling. They were searching for dirt on him. This came out. And it's a class action suit with many people involved so it wasn't just one person. Devry had to answer basically the same charges. They got into huge trouble also. For having people pay huge amounts of money and PROMISING them they would get a job when they got out. So, I would have to see the papers they signed. If they were promised something when they got out that would be a factor.

All of the other candidates are releasing their tax information. Trump is refusing. Romney has thrown it out that if he has nothing to hide he should put his tax info out. Trump still refuses. He needs to figure out what approach he's going to take because when he gets the RNC nomination the Dems are going to come after him on all sides.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

And yet you have vowed to vote for Hillary.

Let's get out a scale and start weighing pasts.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

LOL I did NOT VOW to vote for Hillary. I said I might. That's not quite the same. And I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I have to wait to see who the final two are.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

You said if it came down to Hillary or Trump, you'd vote for her.

Tinydancer · Guru

Hilary stood by and let terrorist kill American citizens. Trump may have had some shady business deals (like the Clintons haven't...lol) but you would vote for Hilary before Trump. Yup. That makes sense to me.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

lilyofcourse wrote:
You said if it came down to Hillary or Trump, you'd vote for her.

If that is what you want to believe then go ahead. When LL asked me directly what I would do I said repeatedly I would have to make my mind up when it came to that point.

Tinydancer · Guru

Yet you kept typing Go Hilary. It's no wonder people think you're going to vote for her.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

Entrepeneurs try to start a lot of different businesses. And, one starting a business isn't an expert in that particular business until they get in and learn the ropes. And, if we are gonna sue schools for outcomes, then let's start suing colleges. I know several kids with college degrees who can't find a damn job after being promised all sorts of bullschit at the University.

Bonny22Pye · Guru

First of all I hate Hillary, but I am beyond shocked that some of you, who generally appear to be hard working, educated adults could vote for a man who has said some of these wonderful things. He just seems like a complete scuzz ball to me.

“(John McCain is) not a war hero…. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

"You know, when (Ben Carson) says he went after his mother and wanted to hit her in the head with a hammer. That bothers me. I mean, that's pretty bad. I'm not saying anything other than pathological is a very serious disease. And he said he's pathological, somebody said he has pathological disease. It's in the book that he's got a pathological temper. That's a big problem because you don't cure that. You don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it. Pathological, there's no cure for that."

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! I mean, (Carly Fiorina’s) a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"

“There’s many different ways (to fix health care), by the way. Everybody’s got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because a lot of times they say, ‘No, no, the lower 25 percent that can’t afford private.’ But...I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now....the government’s gonna pay for it.” – Trump still supporting single payer, government-run healthcare in 2015

“I identify more as a Democrat.” – (2004)

huskerbb · Guru

Don't care.

weltschmerz · Guru

Bonny22Pye wrote:
First of all I hate Hillary, but I am beyond shocked that some of you, who generally appear to be hard working, educated adults could vote for a man who has said some of these wonderful things. He just seems like a complete scuzz ball to me.

“(John McCain is) not a war hero…. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

"You know, when (Ben Carson) says he went after his mother and wanted to hit her in the head with a hammer. That bothers me. I mean, that's pretty bad. I'm not saying anything other than pathological is a very serious disease. And he said he's pathological, somebody said he has pathological disease. It's in the book that he's got a pathological temper. That's a big problem because you don't cure that. You don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it. Pathological, there's no cure for that."

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! I mean, (Carly Fiorina’s) a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"

“There’s many different ways (to fix health care), by the way. Everybody’s got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because a lot of times they say, ‘No, no, the lower 25 percent that can’t afford private.’ But...I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now....the government’s gonna pay for it.” – Trump still supporting single payer, government-run healthcare in 2015

“I identify more as a Democrat.” – (2004)

He can take a dump in the middle of Fifth Avenue while screaming obscenities, and the "poorly-educated" he loves so much will applaud.

They love how "real" he is.

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

Don'tcha just LOVE the insulting dig?

weltschmerz · Guru

lilyofcourse wrote:
Don'tcha just LOVE the insulting dig?

So, Trump was insulting people when he said he loves the poorly-educated? It's his base.

He did say that, you know.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

The problem with colleges is that though they may TELL you you'll get a job when you get out of school they don't put it in writing. Devry was sued, and Devry lost, because they guaranteed the students, in writing, a job when they graduated. If they put it in writing and defaulted on it then yes, they did not hold up to their end of the deal. So, depending on what Trump University promised in writing, they COULD be in trouble. BIG trouble.

Lawyerlady · On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:
Well, the fact that he hid this and they found out about it during the very first debate is telling. They were searching for dirt on him. This came out. And it's a class action suit with many people involved so it wasn't just one person. Devry had to answer basically the same charges. They got into huge trouble also. For having people pay huge amounts of money and PROMISING them they would get a job when they got out. So, I would have to see the papers they signed. If they were promised something when they got out that would be a factor.

All of the other candidates are releasing their tax information. Trump is refusing. Romney has thrown it out that if he has nothing to hide he should put his tax info out. Trump still refuses. He needs to figure out what approach he's going to take because when he gets the RNC nomination the Dems are going to come after him on all sides.

How did he hide it?

lilyofcourse · My spirit animal is a pink flamingo.

So not telling is lying?

ed11563 · Guru

The Case:

(Spoiler due to size)

Donald Trump billed his ‘University’ as a road to riches, but critics call it a fraud

Comments 1427

Spoiler

U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump faces three lawsuits alleging that his now-defunct Trump University defrauded thousands of students. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

By Emma Brown September 13, 2015

They hoped to get rich off real estate, and who would be a better mentor than one of the richest men in the world? So they enrolled in Donald Trump’s university to learn the tricks of the trade, some of them maxing out their credit cards to pay tens of thousands of dollars for insider knowledge they believed could make them wealthy.

With Trump rising in the polls as the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, his brief foray into education is an episode — and a business failure — that remains far more obscure than other chapters of the celebrity billionaire’s career.

Never licensed as a school, Trump University was in reality a series of real estate workshops in hotel ballrooms around the country, not unlike many other for-profit self-help or motivational seminars. Though short-lived, it remains a thorn in Trump’s side nearly five years after its operations ceased: In three pending lawsuits, including one in which the New York attorney general is seeking $40 million in restitution, former students allege that the enterprise bilked them out of their money with misleading advertisements.

Instead of a fast route to easy money, these Trump University students say they found generic seminars led by salesmen who pressured them to invest more cash in additional courses. The students say they didn’t learn Trump’s secrets and never received the one-on-one guidance they expected.

It’s a chapter of Trump’s past that shows how he sometimes defies the usual laws of campaign physics. Such allegations of multimillion-dollar fraud might sink other candidates, but in Trump’s case, even some of the students who felt duped said they haven’t given up on him: They like Trump. They admire him. They might even vote for him.

Students enter a Holiday Inn in Arlington, Va., to take a free Trump University intro seminar in 2009. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

“He says what he means, not like politicians, not like Obama,” said Louie Liu of Hurst, Tex. Liu, a motel owner, said in a sworn affidavit that he paid $1,495 for a three-day seminar, then felt lured into paying $24,995 for more classes, an online training program and a three-day in-person mentorship. A few days later, he called to ask for a refund, but his request was rejected. Trump University, he concluded, was a “scam.”

Trump’s attorneys vigorously deny the charges. Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, said the company offered aspiring real estate investors a quality education and that all but a handful of students were pleased with it.

It is unbelievable, Garten said, that anyone could have thought that Trump University was a university in the traditional sense. Classes were held in hotel ballrooms, after all. “People who say, ‘I thought it was a university with a football team and a bookstore,’ it’s laughable,” he said.

Trump University was born in 2004, when two businessmen proposed to offer distance-learning courses in entrepreneurship under the Trump brand. Trump gave his blessing, according to court documents, becoming a 93 percent owner of the new enterprise.

By 2007, the business had evolved to focus on live real estate seminars. But Trump University was not a university in any legal sense, and beginning in 2005, New York State Education Department officials told the company to change its name because they deemed it misleading. The business became the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in May 2010, and it stopped operating shortly thereafter.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) filed his $40 million suit against Trump and Trump University in 2013, alleging that Trump had illegally operated an unlicensed university and defrauded students. Approximately 80,000 people attended Trump University’s free introductory seminars, according to court documents. About 9,200 of them went on to pay $1,495 for three-day seminars, and nearly 800 paid up to $35,000 for packages that included mentorships and workshops.

“No one, no matter how rich or popular they are, has a right to scam hard working New Yorkers,” Schneiderman said in a news release at the time.

Trump captures the nation’s attention as he campaigns

View Photos

The presidential candidate and billionaire businessman leads the field of candidates in the Republican race.

Trump attacked Schneiderman, calling him a “political hack” whose lawsuit was a publicity grab and a shakedown for campaign contributions. “We have a school that’s a terrific school. It did a fantastic job,” Trump told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 2013.

Trump’s campaign referred questions to Garten, Trump’s lawyer, who said the allegations are baseless and expressed confidence that Trump will prevail.

“We’re completely winning this case,” Garten said.

Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for Schneiderman, said the attorney general could not comment on the pending suit. “We will continue to pursue our claims against Mr. Trump in court on behalf of the people he defrauded,” Mittenthal said.

The judge in the New York case ruled last year that Trump is personally liable for illegally operating a university without a proper license. But the judge also ruled that the statute of limitations prevents Schneiderman from seeking restitution for most of Trump University’s students, a decision Schneiderman is appealing. Whether the university defrauded students and how much Trump might owe in damages are yet to be decided.

Trump University introduced itself to potential customers with advertisements on radio and television, and in newspapers. The ads promoted a free, two-hour real estate seminar and a chance to learn Trump’s strategies from his “handpicked instructors.”

“He’s earned more in a day than most people do in a lifetime,” reads a 2009 ad featuring Trump’s photograph. “He’s living a life many men and women only dream about. And now he’s ready to share — with Americans like you — the Trump process for investing in today’s once-in-a-lifetime real estate market.”

The ad goes on to quote Trump: “I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you.”

[From the archives: In downturn, aspiring moguls turn to Trump U.]

The soundtrack for the free seminars was “For the Love of Money,” the theme song for “The Apprentice,” Trump’s reality television show. Instructors allegedly told inspirational stories of their own business successes and then encouraged students to pay $1,495 for a three-day workshop.

Students said they were swept along by the promise that they were getting the best real estate education money could buy, according to interviews and several dozen complaints and sworn affidavits filed with the court. But they claimed that the seminars were another sales pitch: To learn how to make it in real estate, they needed additional workshops and mentoring at a cost of up to $35,000.

Bob Guillo put $34,995 on his American Express card to pay for the Trump Gold Elite package. He said he walked away with little more than meaningless certificates of completion and a photograph of himself with a life-size image of The Donald.

“I really felt stupid that I was scammed by Trump,” Guillo said. “I thought that he was really legit.”

Michael Sexton, a named defendant in the New York case who served as Trump University’s president, said in a sworn statement that the company provided quality, substantive instruction. Sexton referred questions about the litigation to Trump’s lawyers.

During the three-day workshops, Trump University instructors urged students to call their credit card companies and request increased borrowing limits, ostensibly so they’d have more capital to invest in real estate, according to students’ sworn affidavits. But the New York complaint alleges that the real reason was so students could buy Trump University packages.

John Brown said he was unable to afford a $35,000 package because his request for a credit-limit increase was rejected. He used two credit cards to buy a mentorship package for $25,000 instead, he said in an affidavit. He and his mentor went to Philadelphia for two days, he said, and walked through 20 properties together. But he never got the classroom training he expected from a university.

Schneiderman alleged that the program’s instructors had no particular expertise in real estate and that the seminars didn’t offer any special Trump strategies; he found that the curriculum was largely written by a third-party company that creates materials for motivational speakers and salesmen.

None of that is true, said Garten, Trump’s lawyer. Trump was “intimately involved in all of this,” Garten said, vetting résumés of potential instructors, offering suggestions about what should be taught and helping create case studies based on his own real estate acquisitions.

Besides the New York litigation, Trump also faces two pending class-action suits filed by former students. Trump is expected to give sworn testimony in one of those cases later this fall; a judge has ruled that he must disclose his investments in, and earnings from, Trump University. Judges in both cases have certified the classes, clearing a key hurdle for the plaintiffs.

Garten said he believes Trump will prevail in the class-action suits, pointing to sworn affidavits from satisfied students.

“Trump University gave me the information base, the inspiration and motivation I needed to get started in real estate investing,” wrote Mette Nielsen , a single mother of two who said she had earned $50,000 in the past year by flipping pre-foreclosure homes.

“I would like to state that I wish Trump University would go back into business. I would join right back up again,” wrote Meena Mohan, who said she now owns two rental properties because of what she learned from Trump courses and mentors.

Attorneys for Trump have posted 10,000 student evaluations of Trump University seminars to a Web site called 98percentapproval.com. Many of the people now complaining they were bilked, the site says, had only positive things to say on their evaluations.

One of those people is Guillo, who gave the program high marks. His main complaint was that the chairs could be more comfortable.

Guillo said that instructors pleaded with students to give them high ratings, and he complied, figuring it didn’t matter what he wrote. Now Guillo is watching incredulously as Trump campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination.

“He’s the biggest phony in the world, yet people as gullible as me think he’s the greatest guy in the world,” Guillo said. “When I watch him on TV, I’m really impressed. I think, ‘How can people believe in him?’ And I think, ‘Well, Bob, you believed in him in 2009. You gave him $35,000.’ ”

Magda Jean-Louis and Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Lady Gaga Snerd · Guru

My friend's daughter has student loans for that. Got a degree in Special ed. Cant find a job. Should she sue?

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
My friend's daughter has student loans for that. Got a degree in Special ed. Cant find a job. Should she sue?

I don't know about Trump University but Devry specifically promised the students that they would find them a job within a certain amount of upon graduation. It was put in writing. When you put something like that in writing it becomes a contract and if you don't fulfill that promise then yes, the students can sue. I doubt your daughters college put it in writing.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

Oops friends daughter.

huskerbb · Guru

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
My friend's daughter has student loans for that. Got a degree in Special ed. Cant find a job. Should she sue?

She needs to move. Most states are begging for special ed. teachers.

Nobody Just Nobody · Rib-it! Rrrib-it!

huskerbb wrote:
Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
My friend's daughter has student loans for that. Got a degree in Special ed. Cant find a job. Should she sue?
She needs to move. Most states are begging for special ed. teachers.

I know they desperately need them here.

Mellow Momma · Sniff...sniff, sniff. Yay! A Bum!

huskerbb wrote:
Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:
My friend's daughter has student loans for that. Got a degree in Special ed. Cant find a job. Should she sue?
She needs to move. Most states are begging for special ed. teachers.

its the only teaching degree that practically guarantees you a job in any state at any time. Some states will pay you a signing bonus as well as a housing allowance to come be special ed teachers in their districts. She isnt trying very hard. Of course, most openings for teachers happen in the summer right before school starts.