The recent unexpected closure of a technical-training school in Draper that charged up to $30,000 in tuition has spurred the Utah Attorney General's Office to launch a fraud investigation.
Catherine Lynch, an agent with the state's top law agency, has been soliciting complaints from the some 200 students who were enrolled at Certified Technical Institute, a computer-networking and certification school that suddenly closed its doors last month.Information about CTI's recruitment promises and tuition-reimbursement policies may help the probe. "I've got some (complaints), but not near as many as the student body," she said.
Lynch and Don Carpenter and Harden Eyring, representatives from the Utah System of Higher Education, met with disenchanted CTI students Wednesday in a conference room of the Airport Hilton to discuss legal and educational options.
Students arrived at the school Feb. 19 to find the doors locked and the building empty. None has been given a refund for the costly, quick-paced certification programs, and few have avenues to complete the training courses they had started.
CTI's owners, who owe nearly $500,000 in taxes, have said they will file for bankruptcy.
"I look in your faces and I see dashed dreams," said Carpenter, a spokesman for the commissioner of higher education. "We just don't have the resources to give you your money back or give you free programs."
Carpenter said although such private schools are required to register with the governor-appointed Utah Board of Regents, the state's higher-education governing panel, there aren't enough staffers in the commissioner's office to adequately keep tabs on all of the schools.
State laws, however, allow the board only the authority to ask for "corrective action" if problems arise at one of the unaccredited private schools that falls under the regents' oversight.
Eyring said changes in the law could come soon. Legislators may be asked to strengthen Utah's 13-year-old Post-Secondary Proprietary Act to require private career-training schools above the 12th-grade level to guarantee continued operation and good fiscal standing with a bond.
"The attitude of the regents is that we should either do more or less," Eyring said. "We should regulate more tightly and have a good process students can rely on. An intermediate ground is not where we want to be."
Regents have scheduled the topic for discussion at their April meeting.
CTI was in the process of re-registering when it closed. CTI founder Tali J. Haleua, who served a year in the Utah State Prison for theft by deception, had recently sold the school to some investors led by California businessman Allen Hardman.
Meanwhile, Utah Valley State College, Weber State University, Salt Lake Community College and some private schools are offering to work with displaced CTI students to complete their training.
"It won't be as fast and as speedy and it may cost you some, but it may help you," Carpenter said. "Pick up where you left off and negotiate your options. Continue to work, and we will continue to twist the arms of proprietary schools to get you into existing classes."
Marlon Moore, a member of CTI's student council, said a law firm interested in representing students told him Wednesday that the likelihood of receiving a large settlement against CTI's owners was slim.