Former Ave Maria College Official Awarded $418,000 in Whistle-Blower Lawsuit

Getting the government on your side when you are facing a tough fight in court is a time honored technique in American business, and Kaplan and the for profit industry is no stranger to it. The usual approach is to equate the threat to Kaplan or the for profit industry with injury to society ,(i.e. Americans are uneducated and need college degrees), then exaggerate the magnitude of the problem beyond recognition ,( i.e. If we don’t educate every american we will loose control as a world power) and then claim Kaplan University has the answer in the form of overpriced online education paid for by student loans. This rhetorical strategy makes it seem as if America is hanging on by a thread to its status as world economic power . All will be lost if it is not already , unless legislation is enacted to protect this altruistic industry and provide a college degree to everyone in America at tax payer expense.

The real problem ignored by the DOE is the conflict of interest between Kaplan, the for profit industry, elected officials, and the taxpayers. when the for profit industry is in trouble it has every incentive to use the political process to improve its chances of survival. Elected officials who see an opportunity to extract political contributions and other favors often are eager to help. Regulators at the DOE and accrediting bodies like the HLC are also willing participants insuring survival of the industry because their current positions and future ability to market themselves to the private sector are enhanced in this process. Elected officials and regulators know that there is a good chance the problem will get worse, but they don’t care . By the time the industries problems become to visible to be ignored and the student loan debt crisis hits they will be long gone and a new generation of elected officials and regulators in place. And for this new generation the “crisis” will present additional opportunities to search for scape goats like Ben Wilcox and rescue the industry. These efforts are then used to convince tax payers who are left to pay the bill, that the government is on their side and something is being done to bring the guilty like Kaplan University to justice.

The message is clear , don’t be a whistleblower, if you do the FBI will come and silence you. We must put an end to FBI and political repression in this county. For too long the FBI and big business have used their power and influence to silence people who expose the crimes of big business.
The for profit education industry in the United States is a highly sophisticated, diversified, activity that annually drains billions of dollars from Americas economy by unlawful conduct.

The question is, should the U.S. taxpayer continue to subsidize the for profit education industry, Kaplan University, and the Washington Post with government backed student loans when so much fraud goes unchecked by the Higher Learing Commission, the Department of Education , the DOJ and the courts?

The case against me was nothing more than retaliation by Kaplan University against a whistleblower that caught them defrauding their students and the tax payers out of over a billion dollars in a student loan scam.

The main lesson here is the need to be vigilant to guard against the arbitrary exercise of power by the government against whistleblowers when they threaten the economic establishment of big business.

I just pray that the lord Jesus Christ will allow this to encourage Judge Patricia Seitz in Miami to use the evidence I produced to dispense justice for the US tax payers and students who have been defrauded out of hundreds of millions of dollars by Kaplan College and The Washington Post criminal enterprise.

I will continue to cooperate with the OIG and Department of Justice to recover the millions stolen by Kaplan University from its students and the US tax payers.

Ben Wilcox