LOS ANGELES – (INT) – The insurance carrier for the defunct, for-profit cosmetology school Marinello Schools of Beauty has paid $8,631,000 to resolve civil allegations that the school obtained federal student loan funds for ineligible students who received bogus high school diplomas.

B&H Education, Inc. (B&H), which operated the Marinello Schools of Beauty in locations across Southern California, was accused in a “whistleblower” lawsuit of improperly assisting adult students who did not have high school diplomas to obtain bogus high school diplomas.

B&H allegedly allowed students seeking high school diplomas to take their tests without proctors, to use their phones and workbooks to look up answers during tests, and to repeat the same tests until they passed.

Many of the students who received their high school diplomas through this program then enrolled at B&H, and, with B&H’s assistance, applied for and received federal student loans for which they were not eligible.

Story Date: August 29, 2016