I attended Westwood College Online 2004/2005, not realizing I had been scammed. After completing one year, and seeing Sallie Mae presenting me with a bill for $20,000 + ... that's when the sickening reality began to sink in, "I've been scammed."
Showing posts with label federal investigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label federal investigation. Show all posts
Sallie Mae to Go on the Chopping Block? - NYTimes.comdealbook.nytimes.com/.../sallie-mae-to-go-on-the-chopping-block/Jul 28, 2010 – At the time, Mr. Obama portrayed the overhaul of the student loan program as a triumph over an “army of lobbyists,” singling out Sallie Mae, ...
Me and my entire family (three children) are Autistic. (Verified by a medical specialist). When will the Department of Education step in on my behalf and the behalf of the financial calamity caused to myself and my children, due to the fraud of Westwood College's Scam?? Where is the Department of Education and Department of Justice to enforce the law that is already on the books? Somebody, out there, please help my family!!!
Not only myself, but I have three children, officially diagnosed with autism (one with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified) and the other two, diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. Both conditions are on the Autism Spectrum.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) Aug 6, 2008 ... Autism is a complex DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY that causes problems with social interaction and communication. Symptoms usually start before ... http://nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/asd.cfm
The Legal Question remains, "Did you understand what you were signing with Westwood College?" ANSWER: No, I did not. Their sales-pitch language obscured the fine details. I did not understand what I was signing, and it was all done over the phone and like an Autistic person would, I blindly trusted them and took their word at face value.
When will the Department of Education step in, and save me from the predatorial scam perpetrated by Westwood College and Sallie Mae?
The American Medical Association states :
Mental Capacity and Contracts People with mental illness or a degenerative mental disease have special protections under the law when entering into contracts or other binding documents. Lee Black, JD, LLM http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2008/03/hlaw1-0803.html "Certain requirements must be met before a legal contract-be it for property, goods, or services-is valid and enforceable. There must be at least two parties to the contract, both of which must have the capacity to enter into the agreement; that is, each party must understand what he or she is entering into and the consequences of doing so. If a person who does not have this capacity signs the agreement, it may be voided. Several conditions circumscribe the capacity to enter into a legal agreement. If one of the parties is a minor, the contract may not be enforceable because minors are legally presumed to lack capacity for contracts, even if the particular minor has understood the terms. Adults are generally presumed to have capacity to enter into a contract [4], but this rule is not absolute. There are two major exceptions to the presumption of an adult's legal capacity, one of which is being intoxicated when the agreement was made because intoxication can affect judgment. The second exception to legal capacity is mental illness or mental defect [5]. Historically, this exception intended to protect individuals who were developmentally disabled or insane. Today, the category has been expanded to include those suffering from degenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, that may affect their cognitive abilities." http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2008/03/hlaw1-0803.html
IT IS CALLED EXPLOITATION.
When will the federal law be enforced, and all money Westwood College Swindled me and my family out of, reimbursed?
DALLAS — The owners of Westwood College — which has branches in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston — will pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit with the federal government.
Four years ago, News 8 investigated student complaints against Westwood, which operates seventeen schools nationwide. Its three Texas campuses are known as "career colleges," but in a federal lawsuit, the government charged Westwood was not the college it said it was, and that it did not provide careers for its students.
The lawsuit covers a period from 2002 to 2005, and contains the same complaints Westwood students shared with News 8 in 2005.
Westwood can cost a student tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the curriculum; most students get government grants and loans to go there.
The government charged Westwood with fraud and misrepresentation in participating in those loans.
Westwood told students that 97 percent of its graduates got jobs, but the government said the placement rate was far lower.
[...]
The lawsuit said students were told the credits they earned at Westwood could be transferred to junior colleges and universities. But when former student Robert Moers presented his Westwood transcript to a junior college, officials there told him to "just keep this transcript, because we don't recognize this institution [Westwood] as a school."
Westwood's Texas campuses remain open.
The government's case took years to put together. After prosecutors sought a jury trial, Westwood decided to settle, which does not admit guilt.
Students say college misled them 01:46 PM CST on Tuesday, February 22, 2005
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
There's a long-held American belief that education is the key to a better life.
But a News 8 investigation has found that scores of young men and women claim to have been duped by a chain of private schools in North Texas.
They were fresh out of high school. They often lacked the grades or money for college. Yet, they wanted a degree that will lead them to a career, so they went to a private for-profit school called Westwood College of Technology for an associate degree.
What many said they got, however, were a worthless piece of paper and crippling debt.
Each morning seems bright for hundreds of students on Westwood's campuses in Euless and Dallas, because every minute spent on those campuses is based on the promise of a better life through education - a sense of promise based on Westwood's widely-aired TV commercials.
"You need to know where the really hot careers are," said the ad. "You have lots of questions, and Westwood College has lots of answers."
Westwood is expensive, from $27,000 to $34,000 for about a year and a half of classes. That's as much as a year's tuition at Harvard, or four years at UT-Austin.
Brazell said. "We were trained to make them 'feel their pain.'"
And pain is what Katrina Vargas, a single mom, felt after completing her degree at Westwood.
"Now I'm a single mother, still, and I'm in so much debt," Vargas said. "I have marks on my credit, I can't pay for my daughter's needs ... my mom has to help me."
"I got people in financial jeopardy rather than getting into a career," Brazell said. "They made bets with me on how many students I would enroll."
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharon" To: stephen schoeni salliemae com Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:52 AM Subject: Prison
"...And pain is what Katrina Vargas, a single mom, felt after completing her degree at Westwood. "Now I'm a single mother, still, and I'm in so much debt," Vargas said. "I have marks on my credit, I can't pay for my daughter's needs ... my mom has to help me." ~ Dallas /Fort Worth, Texas
I feel their pain, Mr. Schoeni, being I'm living through the same financial nightmare your predatory business practices lured me and untold tens of thousands into.
When Mr. Wong asked me to advertise your scam from _my_ science blog and our science web sites? Ha, there's no way... but I did tell him I'd give Sallie Mae/Westwood Scam lots of PRO BONO exposure. I read today on one site I found discussing the Westwood fraud, that somebody 'had taken down the fight westwood site'.. Okay, as promised to do, I'll do my part and create a blogspot (~fight-westwood.blogspot.com) their idea which is good enough -- and adding lots of links to information like the article at WFAA News (Dallas / Fort Worth).. and I'll use all the pre-existing sites at my disposal to give top billing to exposing and linking to the Westwood College Online / Sallie Mae fraud, republishing some of the same letters I've shared with you and the reporters. If victims of the Westwood fraud want to come mourn their sorrow, then I'll welcome them with an open embrace. But there will be no greater reason to rejoice, when the criminals at Sallie Mae and Westwood, are sitting behind bars.
You people deserve only a long stretch in federal prison, and the key thrown away!
