Record-breaking £60m payout for illegal 'recruitment mill' practises

Following the accusation of illegal recruiting practices, and falsely obtained federal and state education funds from whistleblowers, America’s second-largest for-profit college operator has settled the case for $95.5million (£62.7million), US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said.

The whistleblowers were Lynntoya Washington, an Assistant Director of Admissions at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division, and Michael T Mahoney, Director of Training for Education Management's (EDMC) online higher education division.

EDMC allegedly ran a “high pressure recruitment mill”, where recruiters pay was based around the amount of students they persuaded to enrol, according to the lawsuit.

It went on to contend that the hiring tactics used went against a federal ban on monetary incentive compensation at colleges.  It also said that Mahoney, who had previously been working in automotive sales, was bought in to “train sales people in car dealers' high-pressure 'closing' techniques."