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Published December 27, 2023, 9:13 p.m. ET
The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that it has sued Grand Canyon University (GCU), becoming the second agency under the Biden administration to take action in recent months as part of a coordinated attack against the nation's largest Christian school is opposed to the institution by several authorities.
The FTC said in a news release that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court against GCU, its marketer Grand Canyon Education, Inc., and its president and CEO Brian Mueller, alleging that the defendants engaged in deceptive advertising and illegal telemarketing.
The complaint alleges that the Arizona-based school misled prospective graduate students about the time it would take to complete its accelerated program, falsely marketed the school as a nonprofit organization and illegally called prospective students seeking their contact information entered on the school's website but asked not to be contacted.
“Grand Canyon deceived students by portraying itself as a nonprofit institution and misrepresenting the cost and number of courses required to obtain a doctorate degree,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively pursue those who seek to exploit students.”
The lawsuit accuses GCU of violating the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rules and asks the U.S. District Court in Arizona to compel GCU to compensate consumers for the alleged violations and to prohibit the university from “further violating the law.”
A museum at Grand Canyon University. AP
A GCU spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment on the lawsuit, but Mueller told Fox News Digital in late October that he believes the university is being unfairly targeted by the Biden administration , and said multiple federal agencies were involved in a coordinated attack on the school.
Shortly thereafter, on October 31, the Department of Education (DOE) fined GCU $37.7 million, saying an investigation conducted by the Office of Federal Student Aid found that the university had over 7,500 former students and current students “lied” about the cost of multi-year doctoral programs.
The DOE said in a news release that GCU “incorrectly” advertised lower costs for its doctoral programs, adding that about 98% of students ended up paying more than the advertised costs.
Lina Khan is chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission. Getty Images
Mueller has argued that the federal investigation is related to the Energy Department's denial of GCU's efforts to convert to a nonprofit in 2018. The department disputed GCU's nonprofit status for purposes of federal student financial aid, which continues to classify the school as a for-profit institution.
In a news conference last month, Mueller promised that GCU would appeal the DOE's fine – the largest the agency has ever imposed – and said the school was not misleading or deceiving students in any way.
FOX News Digital's Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.
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