A 2024 lawsuit filed by two former Los Angeles Film School executives against the prominent for-profit university has been unsealed, detailing allegations of student loan fraud, lies to the Department of Education and mass deception against students about post-graduation employment prospects.
Originally reported by Variety, the lawsuit was filed by Ben Chaib, the former vice-president of admissions, and Dave Phillips, the former vice-president of career development.
The school, founded in 1999, touts its ties with “industry leaders” and offers a spread of online and on-campus degrees including animation, audio production, film production and digital filmmaking. Tuition and fees for domestic students range from $46,260 for an associate of science in audio production degree to $87,275 for a bachelor’s in film production.
According to Variety, the lawsuit includes allegations that the school ties financial rewards for employees to student recruitment, “arranging for thousands of fake job placements” for school graduates by paying a music company almost $1m to hire Los Angeles Film School graduates for two-day jobs.
The lawsuit alleges fraud by the film school when it comes to a key accreditation metric – at least 70% of their students being able to find a job in their field post-graduation – and that the university estimated the actual rate to be closer to 20%.
Chaib and Phillips both received settlements from the school after their 12-plus-year stints concluded, Variety reported. The Los Angeles Film School has labeled the current lawsuit as “a campaign to extract additional money” and said that the plaintiffs were attempting to “resuscitate” allegations that had already been “thoroughly investigated”.
The US justice department initially declined to be involved in the suit, which led to the documents’ unsealing. If successful, the lawsuit would claw back any financial aid fraudulently given to the university by the federal government. Phillips and Chaib could be eligible for 25%-30% of such an amount.
The Los Angeles Film School’s five-year accreditation was most recently renewed by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges in 2023.
