The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday brought fraud charges against for-profit college chain ITT Educational Services Inc. and its top executives, alleging they hid the “extraordinary failure” of two student-loan programs from investors, The National Law Journal reported yesterday. According to the SEC complaint filed in Indiana federal court, the company financially guaranteed the two private loan programs for ITT students. After an “extremely high” number of students defaulted, ITT found itself on the hook for more than $100 million in payments. Rather than admit this to shareholders and company auditors, ITT, according to the SEC, “engaged in a series of deceptive acts to hide the poor performance of the student loan programs and their financial impact on ITT.”
