Prosecutors: College hired strippers as recruiters

MIAMI, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors said a for-profit college in Florida hired "exotic dancers" to work as "admissions representatives" to attract young men to the school.

The U.S. attorney's office and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against Miami-based FastTrain College, said in a civil complaint at least one of the school's now-closed seven campuses used strippers as "admissions representatives."

The college "purposely hired attractive women and sometimes exotic dancers and encouraged them to dress provocatively while they recruited young men in neighborhoods to attend FastTrain," the complaint states. The whistle-blower lawsuit was originally filed by Juan Pena, a former admissions employee at the Plantation campus and the Flagler campus.

The school's campuses were shut down in 2012 following a raid by the FBI. Alejandro Amor, chief executive officer of the company, was indicted in October on criminal charges of conspiracy and theft of government money.

Federal authorities said the school received more than $35 million in Pell grants and other federal financial aid between 2009 and 2012, and they allege the school obtained a large amount of grant money through fraudulent means including falsifying high school diplomas for ineligible students.