Donald Trump's Flim-Flam "University"

If you think Donald Trump would make a great president (yes, even among Buster's readers there may be a couple of you), please read these excerpts or click the link for the full article, then change your mind.  Please.
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(From "Trump U.", by Steven Brill, Time Magazine issue dated 11/16/15)
http://time.com/4101290/what-the-legal-battle-over-trump-university-reveals-about-its-founder/


Politicians often charge their opponents with selling snake oil when they overpromise.  But in litigation that has been meandering through court for five years, Donald Trump is being accused of actually selling snake oil.

Civil cases filed on behalf of thousands of Trump's customers mean that a leading presidential candidate is in court defending a product that short-changed vulnerable consumers.

The snake oil that Trump is accused of selling has to do with Trump University, a series of adult-education classes offering Donald Trump's real estate investing methods and secrets.  At its core, the accusation is that the name was deceptive on both counts:  there were no distinctive Trump methods or secrets actually provided.  And despite its use of terms like professors, adjunct professors and tuition, it was never a university.

Trump and his "university" -- which operated from 2005 through 2010, when it was shut down as the lawsuits were beginning -- lured approximately 7000 consumers into paying $1,495 to $34,995 for courses where, as the promotional material put it, Donald Trump's "handpicked instructors" would  teach them "insider success secrets" of how to invest in real estate.

Trump University collected approximately $40 million from its students, and Trump personally received $5 million of it.

The "curriculum" was actually a sales funnel.  At the top were a series of free 90-minute workshops, meant only to persuade attendees to buy a $1,495 ticket to a three-day workshop, and then up-sell those $1,495 attendees into mentorship programs costing $9,995 to $34,995.

"Faculty" at the free or $1,495 sessions were shake-down artists with no real estate background, who were paid on a commission-only basis for whatever up-sell programs they sold.

And what did the "students" get for their money?  Kevin Scott, 46, of New York sat in on a 90-minute presentation, then enrolled in the $1,495 course where he was persuaded to buy the $25,000 Elite package.  Said Scott, "It all amounts to a whole lot of nothing."  Boyce Chait, 84, of New Jersey spent $34,995 on a mentorship he says proved "to be worth nothing.  When it came to the nitty-gritty, there was nothing there."  Chait demanded a refund, but was refused.

Trump's director of operations declared that the company had issued refunds to 32% of its attendees.  But the majority of those now suing claimed they, too, wanted refunds but were told they could not get them because they did not ask for them within 72 hours.

Bottom line?  No handpicked experts, no best-of-the-best, no insider success secrets.  And no refunds if you were slow about it.  Just deception and flim-flam, ripping off the unsuspecting.

While running for office, both Mitt Romney and Carly Fiorina have been attacked for their business dealings.  But neither was accused of defrauding people or breaking the law.  The rap against them was that they were hard-hearted businesspeople.

The charges against Donald Trump and his scam "University" are something of an entirely different magnitude.