Trump University Attendees to Receive an Astounding $25 Million Settlement!

According to a federal court decision in California’s Southern District, the now-non-existent Trump University’s attendees that took real-estate classes and seminars, are entitled to a $25-million settlement, as of April 10, 2018. The decision was made final by judge Gonzalo Curiel, following the rejection of an appeals court coming from a former attendee who demanded a separate lawsuit. 

Eric T. Schneiderman, who serves as New York’s Attorney General, claimed that justice was done for the seminar’s alleged victims. According to his statement, the $25-million settlement will definitely relieve the victims of the fraud from a significant financial burden. Most importantly, the settlement’s amount was even bigger than most attendees even expected. 

Judge Gonzalo Curiel finalized the settlement in favor of those who attended said seminar

Schneiderman further claimed that the settlement marks a significant defeat for President Trump, who wasn’t willing to compensate the seminar’s former attendees at any point. He also added that his office will always hunt down fraudsters and scammers, regardless of their economic or social status. 

Trump University

Trump University was actually a course of seminars aimed at gaining expertise in the field of real estate and business. It also often urged its students to purchase Donald Trump’s books. According to the seminars’ description, the attendees would eventually learn how to use Trump’s secrets to make it big in the real estate business. It wasn’t long before the plaintiff accused the organization of fraud and deceitful advertising. Just some weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the business magnate and current President was forced to pay the attendees $21 million and the New York Attorney General’s office another $4 million.  

Schneiderman initially sued Trump for allegedly earning a huge amount of money by scamming thousands of seminar attendees back in 2013. The huge settlement is expected to return about 90% of the money the attendees paid the organization. Only those who weren’t accused of misconduct or illegal activity had the right to claim an amount of the settlement, as the deal predicted. The Trump University representative claimed that he was sure the organization would eventually win the legal battle, but this didn’t happen. He also pointed out that Donald Trump wanted legal matters to get done with as fast as possible, in order to focus on his political work. 

Trump University lessons

Trump University existed to educate its “students” about the do’s and don’ts of real estate. However, it was allegedly only involved instructors who sold intellectually flimsy seminars that cost tens of thousands of dollars using infomercial-style high-pressure sales tactics. The institution was forced to change its name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative by New York Officials who wrote that its use of the word university was misleading and that it violated state law.

Trump University was forced to change its name to the Trump Entrepreneurship Initiative after warnings that it could not claim to be a university.

When the disgruntled student’s lawsuit became an issue back in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump said that the judge handling the case was unfit to preside as his Mexican ancestry made him biased against the incumbent president.

The lawsuits against the president

There were three different lawsuits against the president regarding the allegedly fraudulent Trump University series of seminars. The basic charge at the heart of the matter was Cohen v. Trump, which basically stated that the entire case was a hoax. The second lawsuit is Low v. Trump, and it was filed in 2010.

However, back then, it was once Makaeff v. Trump, which stated the same as what the first one entailed but had another facet to it. Trump had sued Makaeff and lost, although Judge Curiel reduced the court costs from $13 million to only $790,000. After this, and after spending five years as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Tarla Makaeff opted out of the proceedings, saying she feared the stress of the entire matter would damage her health.

Trump is no stranger to lawsuits as he has been sued more than 1,500 times

The third lawsuit was People of the State of New York v. The Trump Entrepreneurship Initiative. This lawsuit accused not only Trump University, but also Trump himself of fraud, deceptive practices, false advertising, violating state rules for educational institutions, operating an unlicensed school, and disregarding buyer’s rights to cancel a transaction, and it sought millions of dollars in damages. Trump responded by using the Attorney General, Schneiderman.