Understanding All About Ashford Settlement

By Rebecca Bell


According to the Attorney General of Iowa, Ashford University used sales practices that were unconscionable in the recruiting and enrollment of students in 2014. The University violated several provisions of the Fraud Act of Iowa. The school together with its parent company, Bridgepoint Education Inc., entered into a settlement deal popularly known as Ashford settlement.

The deal involved the appointment of an independent and neutral Settlement Administrator. His functions are to investigate, observation and then writing annual reports of the compliance of Ashford and BPI. The reports will then be given to the Attorney General and also the two companies.

The AG received an amount totaling to $7,250,000 as the agreement amount. The money would be used to serve a number of purposes which would be at the discretion of the Iowa AG. There was some money in this amount that would be channeled towards reimbursing some Iowa residents who were enrolled in the university before or after this agreement was made back in the month of May 2014.

The eligible residents to benefit from this settlement funds would not be chosen by the settlement administrator. In addition, it is not all residents that were students at the university that will be able to receive reimbursements. It is only the office of the AG Iowa that will decide who will get the reimbursements or not and it is therefore imperative that you contact them and talk to Cari Sagar, a paralegal.

If you are a current student at the University, you stand to benefit a lot from this agreement. You will be able to receive information touching on your education that is complete and accurate from the University as the agreement binds the school to do this always. This will cushion you from any unfair practices that your school was previously engaged in.

The Ashford University and BPI will also disclose more about their teacher licenses and certificates. Other information to be disclosed includes the graduation rates and also the median loan balances owed by graduates. The school will also need to make further training of its staff and also ensures that it takes adequate steps that will see a high retention rate of students and graduates.

If you have any concerns or information that any of the employees in either the school or BPI have violated or misled you, you can contact the Settlement Administrator. It is also possible to share this information with the state Attorney General if you have any viable concerns or complaints to make regardless of whether the incident occurred either before or after the agreement was entered into in May 2014. There are various links that you can use to contact this two important offices that are available in relevant websites.

The AG has however issued warnings that there are several websites that are charging people with queries concerning these reimbursements. You should be wary of such websites as it is the office of the AG alone that can determine whether you are eligible for the student loan forgiveness or not. It is important to note that only the office of the AG will contact the affected students directly about these payments.




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