Two former executives at the for-profit Los Angeles Film School have sued the school, its connected operation Full Sail University, and the schools’ main owner, Bill Heavener, alleging that the school has defrauded federal taxpayers for years via a scheme that certified fake job placements for graduates.
The complaint, filed last year in U.S. district court in Los Angeles under the federal False Claims Act, was unsealed last week after the U.S. Justice Department did not join the suit by the mandated deadline. False Claims Act cases are brought by whistleblowers in the name of the United States, alleging that companies or people defrauded the government. If the Justice Department, after reviewing the claims, joins the case, the chances of success tend to be stronger, but plaintiffs who carry on without the government sometimes still win. (In the event of a court victory or settlement, the whistleblowers get 15-25 percent of the proceeds if the government intervenes, and 25-30 percent if the government doesn’t, with the rest of the money going to the government.)
David Phillips, LAFS’s former vice president of career development, and Ben Chaib, ex-vice president of admissions, allege that “the vast majority of LAFS graduates were not able to obtain entry level positions” in the motion picture industry. The complaint quotes internal document stating that “most [grads] report a yearly income of 0-$5,000 in their field of study.”
LAFS, located on Sunset Boulevard in...
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