NEW YORK’S ATTORNEY general says US President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors.
The deal announced this afternoon by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would settle two class-action lawsuits in California and a civil suit filed by Schneiderman.
The suits had alleged that Trump University failed to deliver the quality real estate investing education it promised.
Schneiderman says the $25 million to be paid by Trump or one of his business entities includes restitution for students and $1 million in penalties to the state.
The settlement doesn’t require Trump to acknowledge any wrongdoing and a spokesperson for the President-elect said that they were in “no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial”.
Trump has strongly denied the allegations and said during the campaign that he wouldn’t settle.
In court documents, Trump University staff claimed the institution was geared towards making money.
“While Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could,” former Trump University staffer Ronald Schnackenberg wrote in a statement unsealed court document.
The resolution to the case means president-elect Trump will not be required to take the witness stand and give evidence before his inauguration as president of the United States.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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