Attorney General Koster announces settlement with company that targeted veterans and their educational benefits

Publication: Waynesville Daily Guide | View original article
10:57AM on June 28 2012

Attorney General Chris Koster today announced a settlement with a company that targeted veterans and their educational benefits by deceptively steering them toward certain for-profit colleges. As a result of the settlement, the Department of Veterans Affairs will take over the company’s domain name and use it to provide comprehensive information to veterans about available benefits.

Koster alleges the company, QuinStreet, Inc., violated the state’s consumer protection laws in the course of operating websites such as GIBill.com that targeted military service members. Koster said the websites gave the appearance that the sites were operated, owned or endorsed by the United States government or military, and left the impression that the for-profit schools listed were the only schools at which veterans’ benefits could be utilized.

“Our veterans sacrificed the comforts of home and family, and many delayed their dream of receiving higher education, in order to protect our nation,” Koster said. “It is reprehensible that a company would target United States veterans with the hope of profiting from their hard-earned educational benefits.”

Koster said a multistate investigation found that the list of colleges on websites operated by the company, QuinStreet, consisted only of QuinStreet clients, which were primarily for-profit colleges.

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