【Hacker News搬运】CFPB对BloomTech和首席执行官Austen Allred的编码训练营采取行动

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Title: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

CFPB对BloomTech和首席执行官Austen Allred的编码训练营采取行动

Text:

Url: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-takes-action-against-coding-boot-camp-bloomtech-and-ceo-austen-allred-for-deceiving-students-and-hiding-loan-costs/

美国消费者金融保护局（CFPB）近日对BloomTech及其首席执行官Austen Allred采取了行动，指控他们在学生贷款成本和学生就业率方面的误导行为。CFPB发现，BloomTech和Allred错误地告诉学生，学校的“收入分享”协议合同不是贷款，而实际上这些协议是带有平均约4000美元融资费用的贷款。BloomTech和Allred通过夸大的就业率承诺吸引了潜在的入学学生，声称就业率高达86%，而公司的内部数据显示，就业率更接近50%，有时甚至低至30%。CFPB的命令永久禁止BloomTech从事所有消费者贷款活动，并禁止Allred在未来10年内参与任何学生贷款活动。CFPB还要求BloomTech和Allred停止向未获得合格工作的毕业生收取收入分享贷款的付款，取消某些协议的融资费用，并允许学生无惩罚地退出。BloomTech和Allred还必须支付超过164,000美元的民事罚款，这些罚款将存入CFPB的受害者救济基金。

BloomTech是一家位于旧金山的营利性职业学校，主要由Allred和各种硅谷风险投资基金所有。Allred于2017年创立了该公司，最初名为Lambda School，2022年更名为BloomTech或Bloom Institute of Technology。BloomTech提供短期培训项目，通常为6至9个月，涵盖网页开发、数据科学和后端工程等领域。自2017年以来，BloomTech至少发放了11,000笔收入分享贷款，大多数BloomTech学生用这些贷款支付学费。在几乎所有这些贷款中，学生在相关领域年收入超过50,000美元时，需每月向BloomTech支付其预税收入的17%，直到他们支付24次款项或达到总共30,000美元的“上限”。

CFPB发现，BloomTech学生被虚假承诺和具有欺骗性的市场营销所吸引。BloomTech和Allred：

* 隐藏了学生债务的真实成本和性质：BloomTech错误地声称其“收入分享”协议不是贷款，不会产生债务，不会产生融资费用，且“无风险”。实际上，这些协议是带有平均4000美元融资费用的贷款。这些贷款存在重大风险，因为一次漏付将触发违约，剩余的30,000美元“上限”将立即到期。BloomTech进一步通过不披露融资费用和年利率等关键条款，隐藏了“收入分享”贷款的成本和性质，这些条款是法律要求的。
* 通过夸大的就业率欺骗潜在学生：BloomTech在其网站上宣传，71%至86%的学生在毕业后的六个月内被安置就业，而其向投资者提供的非公开报告显示，就业率更接近50%，有时甚至低至30%。Allred在一条推文中称，该校在一个班级中实现了100%的就业率，后来在一条私人消息中承认，样本大小仅为一名学生。
* 通过向投资者出售贷款而错误地代表其财务利益：BloomTech的营销代表称，其自身利益与学生一致，通过诸如“我们不得到你得到的东西就不会得到报酬”和“因为我们投资于你，而不是反过来，所以我们只有在得到你得到的东西时才会赚钱”等说法。实际上，该公司正在向投资者出售许多“收入分享”贷款，因此通常在学生完成课程并开始赚钱之前就已经得到了报酬。
* 从事非法合同实践：BloomTech违反了联邦消费者保护法中的持有者规则，未能包括一个必要条款，该条款规定任何贷款的所有者都应受到学生可以对BloomTech提出的法律索赔和辩护的影响。因此，当学生的“收入分享”贷款被卖给投资者时，他们被剥夺了本应拥有的权利。

根据消费者金融保护法（CFPA），CFPB有权对违反消费者金融法律的公司采取行动，包括从事不公平、具有欺骗性或滥用行为或做法。CFPB发现，BloomTech和Allred使用了具有欺骗性的陈述，并利用消费者对BloomTech代表他们利益的合理依赖。

根据CFPB的命令，BloomTech和Allred必须：

* 停止向某些毕业生收取付款：BloomTech必须不再向过去一年内没有获得合格工作的毕业生收取“收入分享”贷款的任何额外付款。
* 修改“收入分享”贷款合同：命令改革“收入分享”贷款条款，为那些毕业超过18个月且获得年收入70,000美元或以下合格工作的消费者消除融资费用。
* 允许学生无惩罚地退出：当前学生将有权退出该计划并取消其“收入分享”贷款，或继续在该计划中使用第三方贷款。
*

Post by: Jimmc414

Comments:

imzadi: I attended Lambda when it was first starting out. I think I was in the third or fourth cohort. At the time, the sell was that you didn't have to pay anything unless you got a job using the skills you learned from them. I was pretty naïve, I guess.Things seemed fine in the beginning. The instructors were good, and I liked that there were actual live classes. Things degraded very quickly. They kept changing the format and the curriculum ("iterating"). They doubled the length of the program that I was in, which made it impossible for me to even finish it. I was working in a tech support job where we had to do shift bids and no shift was guaranteed. I enrolled in a plan that fit the shift I was working, and the expected end date, and when they changed the program length and format, I couldn't complete it.They promised career guidance, including having a career councilor, but I never got one. They kept telling my cohort we would get our councilors after this or that milestone, but when we got there they would move the goalpost again. The closest we got was a resume course that was not relevant to tech at all and a resume review by another student.When I had to drop out of the program, I tried to get them to cancel the ISA or reduce it, but they said I had completed "most" of the curriculum and thus was on the hook for all of the ISA.They then started billing me for it because I was working in tech, in the job I had for 6 years before I ever even started their program.I went to a lawyer and was told it wasn't worth suing, because they required arbitration in NYC, which would cost more than I would save.

imzadi: Lambda刚起步的时候我就上过。我想我属于第三或第四组。当时，卖点是你没有；你不需要付出任何代价，除非你用从他们那里学到的技能找到了一份工作。我想我当时很天真 事情一开始似乎很好。老师们都很好，我喜欢现场直播的课程。事情很快就恶化了。他们不断地改变形式和课程（“迭代”）。他们把我参加的项目的时间延长了一倍，这让我甚至无法完成。我当时在一份技术支持工作中工作，我们必须进行轮班投标，而且没有轮班保证。我报名参加了一个适合我正在工作的轮班和预期结束日期的计划，当他们改变计划的长度和格式时，我不能；我没有完成。他们承诺提供职业指导，包括有一个职业顾问，但我从来没有得到。他们一直告诉我的同事，在这个或那个里程碑之后，我们会得到我们的议员，但当我们到达那里时，他们会再次移动门柱。我们最接近的是一门与科技无关的简历课程，以及另一名学生的简历复习 当我不得不退出该项目时，我试图让他们取消ISA或减少它，但他们说我已经完成了“；大多数“；课程的一部分，因此被所有ISA所困扰 然后他们开始向我收费，因为我在科技行业工作了6年，甚至在我开始他们的项目之前 我去找了一位律师，被告知是；不值得起诉，因为他们要求在纽约进行仲裁，这将比我节省的费用还要多。

Twirrim: This is the boot camp school formerly known as Lambda School, that came under a lot of fire in the past for these types of practices, and other issues.Previous trouble they've been in:<a href="https://dfpi.ca.gov/2021/04/26/lambda-school-reaches-settlement-with-dfpi-agreeing-to-end-deceptive-educational-financing-practices/" rel="nofollow">https://dfpi.ca.gov/2021/04/26/lambda-school-reaches-settlem...</a><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/13/lambda-school-lawsuits/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/13/lambda-school-lawsuits/</a>

Twirrim: 这是一所以前被称为Lambda学校的新兵训练营学校，过去曾因这些类型的做法和其他问题而受到很多抨击 之前的麻烦他们；我曾在：<a href=“https:&#x2F；&x2F；dfpi.ca.gov&#x2F：2021&#x2F！04&#x2F？26&#x2F。lambda学校与dfpi达成和解，同意终止欺骗性的教育融资行为&#x2F”rel=“nofollow”>https:&#x20F&#x2F；dfpi.ca.gov；2021；04；26；lambda学校达成和解</a> <a href=“https://；&#x2F；techcrunch.com/&#x2F！2021&x2F；05&#x2F：13&#x2F，lambda学校诉讼&#x2F”rel=“nofollow”>https://&#x2F；techcrunch.com&#x2F；2021；05；13；lambda学校诉讼</一

danso: pg in 2019:> Lambda School will go on growing and transform education. Few will remember having been part of the jeering mob.<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apaulg lambda&src=typed_query" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apaulg lambda&src=typed...</a>

danso: 2019年的pg：&gt Lambda学校将继续发展和改造教育。很少有人会记得曾经是嘲笑暴徒的一部分 <a href=“https:&#x2F；&x2F；twitter.com&#x2F！search？q=from%3paulg%20lambda&amp；src=typed_query”rel=“nofollow”>https:&#x20F&#x2F；twitter；搜索q＝来自%3Paulg%20lambda&amp；src=已键入</一

g-w1: The Recurse Center[1] is the opposite of this. They don't take any of your income, they just help you find jobs and companies pay them to find cool people. And there is no curriculum. They believe that if people work on cool things they will learn a lot. I can't recommend it enough![1]: <a href="https://www.recurse.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.recurse.com/</a>

g-w1: 递归中心[1]与此相反。他们不；不要拿你的任何收入，他们只是帮你找工作，公司付钱给他们找酷炫的人。而且没有课程。他们相信，如果人们从事一些很酷的事情，他们会学到很多。我可以；Don’我推荐得还不够 [1]：<a href=“https://；&#x2F；www.recurse.com&#x2F”rel=“nofollow”>https://&#x2F；www.recurse.com&#x2F</一

solardev: Are there any legit income-sharing schools of this type, tech or otherwise? Done fairly, it sounds like an interesting alternative to upfront tuition.On the surface it doesn't seem like a bad model, but of course it could be twisted to evil ends. From the article:> The loans carry substantial risk, as a single missed payment triggers a default and the remainder of the $30,000 “cap” becomes due immediately.> Students were therefore deprived of rights they should have had when their “income share” loan was sold to an investor [without the required Holder Rule provisions transferring legal responsibilities to the new owners].

solardev: 有没有这种类型的合法的收入分享学校，无论是科技学校还是其他学校？公平地说，这听起来像是预付学费的一个有趣的替代方案 从表面上看；这看起来不像是一个糟糕的模式，但它当然可能会被扭曲到邪恶的目的。来自文章：&gt；这些贷款具有巨大的风险，因为一次未付款就会引发违约，30000美元“上限”的剩余部分将立即到期 &gt；因此，当学生的“收入份额”贷款被出售给投资者时，他们被剥夺了本应享有的权利[没有必要的持有人规则条款将法律责任转移给新的所有者]。