Summary: A California judge finalized the $25 million Trump University settlement.
After hundreds of students complained about the quality of their education at Trump University, a federal judge is finalizing their multi-million dollar settlement this week, Buzzfeed News reported.
President Donald Trump owned a real estate education company before his presidency called Trump University, and the classes promised aspiring billionaires that they too could get rich through buying and selling property. However, many students claimed that Trump University, in the end, swindled them out of money and left them with nothing but debt and empty promises.
In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman sued Trump University on behalf of former students who said the non-university tricked them into forking over thousands on bogus classes.
On Monday, US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of San Diego finalized the $25 million settlement, and this settlement will close the book on the years-long legal battle between our country’s president and his former students.
The settlement was reached in 2016, the year real estate tycoon Donald Trump won the presidential election; and Schneiderman said that he was pleased with the $25 million amount.
“Judge Curiel’s order finalizing the $25 million Trump University settlement means that victims of Donald Trump’s fraudulent university will finally receive the relief they deserve,” Schneiderman said. “This settlement marked a stunning reversal by President Trump, who for years refused to compensate the victims of his sham university. My office won’t hesitate to hold those who commit fraud accountable, no matter how rich or powerful they may be.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they would not take any legal fees out of the settlement, and class action members will receive at minimum 55% of their damages.
Class action lawsuits were filed separately in California and New York, and in the two cases, students said that they were pressured to spend thousands on gimmicky real estate classes that left them in a mountain of debt.
Trump, whose platform is to fight immigration from Mexico, infamously lashed out at Judge Curiel because of this case and questioned his partiality because of the judge’s “Mexican heritage” even though the judge was born in Indiana.
The settlement was supposed to be finalized in 2017, but it was only approved on Monday because it was delayed after a Florida woman filed to separate herself from the class action and sue on her own. Her request was denied earlier this year.
As part of the $25 million settlement, Trump University did not admit to any wrongdoing, according to ABC News.
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