Steamy Love Aff…

April 9, 2012 by economicwarrior Steamy Love Affair: Mitt Romney, Wall Street Finance and Wealthy Politicians Affair with For-Profit Education Student Loan Academic-Industrial-Complex

Hampton, NH (April 9, 2012) Best-selling NH author  Barry James Dyke reports that Mitt Romney, Wall Street finance and wealthy politicians have a steamy love affair with the for-profit education  student loan academic-industrial-complex. In his new book, The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom www.thepiratesofmanhattan.com the author documents the oncoming $1 trillion student loan tsunami in both for-profit and not-for-profit schools.  Dyke unveils the incestuous interconnection of Wall Street private equity firms in monster “club deals” which include Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, KKR, Carlyle and Providence Equity.

The author states, “For profit-education companies revenue stream is almost entirely dependent on the federal government funded student loans. For profit school enrollment has gone from 385,000 in 2000 to 1.8 million in 2010.  The Government Accounting Office (GAO), in a scathing 2010 report found that for-profit colleges engaged in deceptive practices, encouraged fraud to enroll students, saddled them with large debts and offered few solid job prospects to pay back loans.  For-profit schools enroll 10% of the people into colleges, used up 25% of government financial aid and account for 44% of student loan defaults” The author continues, “to make matters worse, much of for-profit education student loan academic complex capital/equity  base is supplied by mutual funds, which get their funding from Main Street America’s 401(k)s. It’s another showcase for Wall Street greed, and when it implodes, the taxpayer will hold the bag.”

Mitt Romney’s Florida primary fundraising chairman was James “Bill” Heavener, the CEO of Full Sail University, a for-profit college. Heavener contributed $85 thousand to a super PAC (Political Action Committee) Restore Our Future—supporting Romney which is run by former Romney aides. [To see Romney’s endorsement of Full Sail and other for-profit schools, see this YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF_9r6-DLTw (Mitt Romney Endorses Scam For-Profit Colleges)].

TA Associates, a Boston based private equity firm is an investor in Full Sail University. C. Kevin Landry, an executive with TA donated $120 thousand to Romney’s super PAC. TA acquired for-profit The Rocky Mountain School of Design in Denver in 2011 and The Los Angeles Film School in Los Angeles. TA Associates owned another for profit educator, Florida Career College but sold the school to two other private equity firms, Greenhill Capital and Abrams Capital. Romney’s son Tagg runs a Boston based fund-of-funds private equity firm Solamere Capital where Mitt invested about $10 million. Solamere invested in TA Associates, which in turn acquired Vatterott Educational Centers, Inc. in 2009 from private equity firm Wellspring Capital Management.

The Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) the country’s largest for-profit educator which owns the University of Phoenix, donated $75 thousand to Romney’s super PAC. In 2004, The Apollo Group settled with the Department of Education for nearly $10 million for its strong arm recruiting practices. In 2009, Apollo settled again for an additional $78.5 million for similar discretions. In 2009, The Carlyle Group, the private equity giant, teamed up with Apollo Group to acquire BPP Holdings PLC, a large British for-profit education concern for $607 million. CEO for Apollo was Todd Nelson. Now he is CEO of Education Management Corporation.

Maine U.S. Senator Olympia Snow’s husband John ‘Jock’ McKernan, a former governor of Maine has been a corporate officer of Education Management Corporation (NASDAQ: EDMC) since 1999. Majority owners of EDMC are private equity firms Goldman Sachs (43%) and Providence Equity Partners (32%). Education Management, which enrolls about 150,000 students, is embroiled in an $11 billion lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over its alleged cutthroat sales practices to enroll students while loading them up with student loans. EDMC CEO Todd Nelson [prior Apollo CEO] and his wife Amy, donated nearly $5000 to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Amy Nelson, using a post office box in Utah, donated $50 thousand to Romney’s super PAC.

Goldman Sachs employees are Mitt Romney’s largest supporters. Romney with his wife Ann have millions invested with Goldman Sachs funds. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners invested $192 million in First Marblehead (NYSE: FMD) a student loan company in 2007 at $15.30 a share. By April 4, 2012, FMD was trading at $1.18. 
Romney gets contributions from all areas of predatory finance.  Bloomberg reported in April 2012, that payday lenders and auto-title lenders contributed $427,500 to Restore Our Future in 2012. Bain Capital is hard-wired into Wall Street finance and revealed in The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom.

Blum Capital Partners, the private equity firm run by California’s U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband Richard C. Blum, is a major owner in Career Education (NASAQ: CECO) and ITT Educational Services (NYSE: ESI). Blum Capital which manages $2.7 billion gets about $600 million in funds California’s pensions, CalPERS, CalSTRS and the Los Angeles County Retirement System, and additional funds from the State of New York Pension.

Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI) is 65% owned by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus. NCO Group, a worldwide mercenary debt collector of student and other loans is owned by One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). NCO was a $1.26 billion 2006 leveraged buyout engineered by JPMorgan Chase/One Equity Partners. Lauriat Education in 2007 did a $3.8 billion management/leveraged buyout with KKR and Citigroup Private Equity. Former president Bill Clinton is an Honorary Chancellor of Lauriat International Universities, and was the keynote speaker at Walden University’s commencement in July 2011. Not to be outdone, former President George W. Bush will speak in Las Vegas on June 22, 2012 at the annual meeting of APSCU, the leading association for-profit colleges at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino where Bush gets $100 thousand or more per speech. For further information about The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom contact the author at castleassetmgmt@comcast.net