The U.S. Department of Justice is turning up the heat on a Massachusetts-based student recruiting firm, Study Across the Pond LLC, and its head honcho, John Borhaug, slapping them with a False Claims Act complaint for their controversial tactics in recruiting American students to cross the pond and hit the books at foreign schools, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In a legal move that captures the Department of Education's disapproval of pay-for-play in student recruitment, Study Across the Pond and Borhaug find themselves on the hook for allegedly inciting UK schools to submit fraudulent claims for federal student aid, a scheme that's been unfolding since at least 2015 and implicating no fewer than 28 United Kingdom schools while blatantly disregarding the federal ban on incentive-based remuneration, A commotion now revealed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
"Prospective students are entitled to make their enrollment decisions without the improper influence of recruiters who pursue their own financial gain at the expense of students' best interests," remarked Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, stressing the importance of keeping student recruitment clean of monetary motives, as detailed in the U.S. Attorney's Office announcement.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy added his two cents on the situation, noting “Today’s complaint alleges that Study Across the Pond and John Borhaug used illegal incentives to influence American students to attend foreign schools," a situation his office is diligently striving to rectify by upholding the rules against incentive compensation, taking a clear stance against tactics that could potentially compromise the fairness of federal student financial aid programs, as reported by U.S. Attorney's Office.
Meanwhile, the enforcers at the Department of Education Office of Inspector General's Eastern Regional Office, led by Special Agent in Charge Terry Harris, vowed to stand guard over public education funds set aside for eligible students, embodying their mission and underscoring a commitment to chase down any inkling of False Claims Act infringement.
As the legal process grinds on, the government, drawing on the efforts of its crack team of Trial Attorney Allison C. Carroll of the Civil Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian LaMacchia and Alexandra Brazier for the District of Massachusetts, are seeing this through in what's codenamed United States ex rel. Hitrost LLC v. Study Across the Pond, LLC, et al., with the qualifier that allegations remain just that—allegations—till proven otherwise in a court of law.
