Attorney General Kamala Harris Sues For-Profit College Company

By Christine Hsu

California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit yesterday against Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCi) and its subsidiaries Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges for false and predatory advertising, securities fraud and intentional misrepresentations to students.

Harris said the colleges targeted low-income people, minorities and veterans in the state to enroll as students.

Harris alleged that Corinthian promised students, “a hundred percent guarantee of job placement. Our investigation, however, found that this was false information and in some programs, not one single student obtained a job coming out of that program.” 

Kent Jenkins, a spokesman for Corinthian, issued the following statement: “We are committed to regulatory compliance and have robust processes in place to correctly record and disclose the job placement information we receive from our graduates and their employers.”

He added, “we will vigorously defend against this complaint.”

Harris issued a call to current and former CCi students to file complaints at the website of the Attorney General’s Office.

She said Corinthian executives had conducted a "predatory scheme" that is "unconscionable."

There are 24 colleges run by Corinthian in California with approximately 27,000 students enrolled.

Heald College has a long history in San Francisco. One of the country's oldest business careers college, Heald was founded in 1863 and now includes 12 campuses across the western United States. Its alumni includes Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini, museum founder M.H. de Young, and former California Governor Hiram Johnson.

Here is the lawsuit:

Document