A bicoastal tutoring center — whose website boasts endorsements from actor/former Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York and LA schools chief Ramon Cortines — has agreed to shell out a $2 million settlement to the feds after confessing it falsified documents to solicit public funding for services never provided.
Under a settlement deal with the government announced Tuesday, The Academic Advantage, based in Manhattan, admitted bilking taxpayers out of federal funds by forging students signatures on attendance sheets for years to make it seem as if more were attending tutoring classes.
The city’s Department of Education distributes federal supplemental-education services funds for students attending under-performing public schools. Approved providers, such as The Academic Advantage once was, receive more money if they can document that they service more students.
The feds last month sued The Academic Advantage and nine of its staffers claiming the tutoring group was paid $14 million in federal funds from 2010 to 2012 for “purportedly providing after-school tutoring services to students attending under-performing public schools in New York City” but was actually “repeatedly billing for students who never received these” services.
The company, which also has a Los Angeles office, lists on its website a series of high-profile endorsements, including praise from Schwarzenegger, who is California’s former governor.
“The Terminator” star is quoted saying, “By offering specialized instruction, [The Academic Advantage’s] highly educated tutors help students gain the tools they need to excel academically and build confidence.”
Cortines, who ran the New York City’s schools during parts of the Dinkins and Giuliani administrations, is quoted on the page, saying the tutoring company’s programs are “outstanding.”
“I have yet to come across an after-school educational program that is more effective at equipping children with the tools they need to succeed in their schooling and beyond,” Cortines says. “It’s no wonder The Academic Advantage has risen to become one of the nation’s leading tutoring programs.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan approved the $2 million settlement as well as separate civil claims against two company staffers, Edwin Guzman and Lus Mercedes, who agreed to separately pay the government $61,819 and $101,758, respectively. Both have also pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges.
“With the actions announced today, we continue our push to clean up corruption in the tutoring of our school kids,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Messages left with the company’s New York and California offices were not returned.