IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
8 EXCERPT OF THE TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
BEFORE THE HONORABLE BLANCHE M. MANNING
TAX FRAUD
18 Q. Mr. Hammerman asked you some questions about ghost
19 employees and tax fraud allegations. Can you explain for the
20 jury what -- can you explain to the jurors what that referred
21 to when you talked about ghost employees and tax fraud?
22 A. We called them Caspers. They were ghost students. What
23 would happen is a student would drop out of school. He'd go
24 some time, a semester or two, and drop out. Then the student
25 would go on with their life somewhere. What we would do is we
1 would keep recertifying their student loan application to the
2 Government each semester until graduation. We would just get
3 their student loan and keep it. The student even didn't know.
4 We took tens of millions of dollars from the Federal Government
5 this way. They were called Caspers. Sometimes the students
6 later would find out later that they had massive debt.
7 MR. HAMMERMAN: Your Honor, I'm going to object.
8 THE COURT: Just a moment. Just a moment.
9 MR. HAMMERMAN: Once again, there was a question, and
10 he's answered.
11 THE COURT: Yes, ask another question.
12 MR. BRINDLEY: I'll ask another question.
13 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
14 Q. Mr. Wilcox, you were explaining what would happen. You
15 said the students would drop out, and then you'd keep
16 recertifying the student loan forms. Did you participate in
17 that?
18 A. Yes, I did.
19 Q. And was this something that you were directed to do as part
20 of your work as dean?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Who was involved in giving you direction on this activity?
23 A. Chris Caywood, David Harpool, Andy Rosen.
24 Q. Okay. You say that the student loan forms would be
25 resubmitted. So then did you keep receiving student loan money
1 as if these students were still going to school?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Even when they were not.
4 A. That's correct.
5 Q. Did diplomas ultimately get printed out for these students?
6 A. Yes.
7 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, Your Honor. This is all
8 leading.
9 MR. BRINDLEY: It doesn't suggest an answer. This is
10 redirect, first of all, but it doesn't suggest an answer. He
11 can answer yes or no.
12 THE COURT: I'll overrule that objection.
13 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
14 Q. So did the students -- did ultimately diplomas and grades
15 get produced for these students who never even attended?
16 A. We just put the transcripts and the diplomas through the
17 shredder after graduation because they never showed up. They
18 didn't even know they were in school.
19 Q. And then what would happen after that to those students
20 that you were certifying as receiving student loan money when
21 they weren't even students? What would happen to them?
22 A. Ultimately, at some point they would find out they had a
23 big bills for a student loan. Many of them sued Kaplan, and
24 others probably still don't know to this day.
25 Q. And, Mr. Wilcox, all that loan money when you started
1 recertifying these forms, did Kaplan get all that money for
2 these students when they never attended?
3 A. It's my understanding they forwarded it to the Washington
4 Post.
5 Q. Mr. Hammerman asked you some questions about other people
6 in the False Claims Act lawsuit named Carlos, somebody named
7 Jude, and somebody named Victoria something. He was asking you
8 about whether they've been charged with crimes. I will ask you
9 this question, Mr. Wilcox. To your knowledge, do any of the
10 other relators, the other people involved in the false claims
11 action, do any of them have access to the inside documents from
12 Kaplan corporate that you do?
13 A. No. I took the documents. I'm the only one that has the
14 documents.
15 Q. And then who was the only person that you know of in that
16 suit that is capable of interpreting what was in those
17 high-executive Kaplan documents?
18 A. Me.
19 Q. Is there any other high executive of your level that has
20 ever come forward against Kaplan to your knowledge as part of
21 these lawsuits?
22 A. No.
23 Q. And if you are discredited, do you believe the lawsuit can
24 succeed?
90/10 Violations Testimony
10 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
11 Q. And, Mr. Wilcox, was it part of your job as dean to
12 maintain these records with respect to your department?
13 A. Oh, absolutely, yes.
14 Q. Okay. Now let's talk about Exhibit LL. What is LL?
15 A. LL is an actual Gift of Knowledge redemption form. This is
16 the scholarship. It's filled out and signed by Chris Caywood.
17 This was a student that was given the Gift of Knowledge.
18 Q. And was this one of the documents you assisted in
19 processing and preparing?
20 A. I did.
21 Q. And was this one of the documents that -- was this one made
22 in the normal course of Kaplan's business with respect to its
23 students and the Gift of Knowledge?
24 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, foundation.
25 THE COURT: Overruled.
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 BY THE WITNESS:
2 A. It's a standard form. This is what all the students got,
3 the Gift of Knowledge redemption form. It tells them what they
4 got, what it's good for, and Chris Caywood signed it.
5 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
6 Q. And were these made and maintained by your department at
7 Kaplan while you were dean?
8 A. Absolutely.
9 Q. And was it part of your job as dean to maintain these
10 documents?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Okay. I'm then going to draw your attention to Defendant's
13 Exhibit NN. Can you identify Defendant's Exhibit NN?
14 A. This is an IRS Form 1098-T. This is what we reported to
15 the IRS, that this particular student paid $17,465 in tuition
16 for this semester.
17 Q. Okay. Now, Mr. Wilcox, this document that's prepared for
18 the IRS, is this one of the documents that was prepared at
19 Kaplan when you were dean?
20 A. Yes. It certified right here that we prepared it and sent
21 it to the IRS. The student didn't do this; we did this.
22 Q. Right, right. Mr. Wilcox, were you involved in the
23 preparation of these documents?
24 A. I was.
25 Q. Were these documents kept and maintained in the ordinary
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 course of Kaplan's business when you were dean?
2 A. They were.
3 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, foundation.
4 THE COURT: I think that's what --
5 MR. BRINDLEY: That was the question, foundation.
6 THE COURT: I think that's what counsel is attempting
7 to do, lay the foundation. Overruled.
8 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
9 Q. Were these documents and documents like them kept and
10 maintained by Kaplan when you were dean?
11 A. The 1098-T form, yes. We had to send this in by law to the
12 IRS.
13 Q. And was one of your duties as dean to maintain these forms
14 with respect to the gift of knowledge and see that they were
15 properly submitted to the IRS?
16 A. Yes, it was.
17 Q. Okay. Now, Mr. Wilcox, you said that the tax documents --
18 do they indicate -- when these documents like NN were sent in,
19 did they indicate that the student paid a bunch of tuition?
20 A. That one indicates 17,000, but they were all different
21 amounts, 20,000, 60,000, 5,000, whatever the student used on
22 their Gift of Knowledge.
23 Q. Okay.
24 A. We reported they paid for it.
25 Q. Okay. Was any of that true?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 A. It was absolutely false. It was tax fraud, straight up.
2 Q. Then did students receive refunds for this?
3 A. Of course, they did.
4 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, leading.
5 THE COURT: Overruled.
6 BY THE WITNESS:
7 A. Under the Bush administration --
8 MR. BRINDLEY: No, I think he's answered the
9 question.
10 THE COURT: Okay.
11 BY THE WITNESS:
12 A. Yes, they received -- if you paid $17,000 in college
13 tuition this year, you get it back.
14 THE COURT: All right. Just a moment, sir. There's
15 no question pending.
16 MR. BRINDLEY: Okay.
17 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
18 Q. So let's just be clear, Mr. Wilcox. If you can just answer
19 this question simply with a yes or no, did the students then
20 get a refund for this money that you said got paid?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. So were they getting refunds for money that was never paid?
23 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, foundation. How does this
24 witness know that students were getting tax refunds for other
25 students?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 THE COURT: The objection will be overruled, counsel.
2 He's laid a proper foundation.
3 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
4 Q. So, Mr. Wilcox --
5 THE COURT: As a matter of fact, let's have a sidebar
6 for a moment. We don't need you, Pat.
7 (Discussion at sidebar off the record.)
8 THE COURT: You may continue, counsel.
9 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
10 Q. So, Mr. Wilcox, at Kaplan, is what happened that students
11 received refunds from the IRS for money that was never paid?
12 Is that right?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And was this all part of the plan to avoid the 90/10 rule?
15 A. Yes, that's how we avoided or we beat the 90/10 rule.
16 Q. And, Mr. Wilcox, did you participate in the preparation of
17 all of these fraudulent documents?
18 A. I did.
19 Q. And who else participated in it?
20 A. Chris Caywood, David Harpool, and Andy Rosen.
21 Q. Okay. These documents we just looked at, these are a
22 representative sampling of a multitude of documents that you
23 have provided to the --
24 A. That's very small.
25 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, vague.
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 MR. BRINDLEY: Well, let me finish the question.
2 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
3 Q. Is that a small sampling or a representative sampling of
4 documents you provided as part of the lawsuit?
5 A. That's a small sampling, yes.
6 Q. Okay. Mr. Wilcox, based on your understanding as a dean
7 trying to meet this 90/10 rule, if Kaplan couldn't meet the
8 90/10 rule and this hadn't been done, this fraud that you
9 discussed, would they be able to get student loan money?
10 A. No.
Recruiting violations
11 Q. Did the HLC, the Higher Learning Commission, also have
12 rules on the recruitment of students?
13 A. Yes, very stringent ones.
14 Q. And when you were at Kaplan, did you participate in the
15 violation of these rules?
16 A. We made a mockery of them.
17 Q. And when you say "we," who is the "we"?
18 A. Myself, Chris Caywood, David Harpool, Andy Rosen, and a
19 multitude of recruiters.
20 MR. HAMMERMAN: Your Honor, can we have a foundation
21 for this instead of just conclusions?
22 MR. BRINDLEY: Okay.
23 MR. HAMMERMAN: I'm objecting to this.
24 MR. BRINDLEY: We'll talk about the specific conduct.
25 That's where we're going, Your Honor. It was sort of
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 preliminary in nature.
2 THE COURT: If that's an objection, it will be
3 overruled.
4 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
5 Q. Mr. Wilcox, could you describe what the Higher Learning
6 Commission's rules for recruitment are as you understand them
7 when you were working in this field?
8 A. Well, all schools have recruiters. Recruiters are people
9 that respond when a student makes an initial inquiry into a
10 school: Hey, I hear you have a certain program at the
11 University of Michigan. I'd like to know more about it.
12 They tell them about it. They help try to match
13 students to what they're seeking educationally.
14 Q. I understand. My question for you, sir, maybe it wasn't
15 clear enough. What were the rules for the HLC? What is it
16 that you had to do to properly do recruiting?
17 A. Well, there's really only one rule, and that is that they
18 have to be paid employees, salaried employees. They can't be
19 salespeople. They can't be paid on a commission basis.
20 Q. You're talking about the recruiters.
21 A. Yeah, a recruiter can't be paid based on how many people he
22 does or doesn't bring in. He's just paid to advise them and
23 bring them in.
24 Q. At Kaplan when you were dean, did you direct the
25 recruitment of students in your department?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 A. I did. That was one of my jobs.
2 Q. Did you do this along with any other people?
3 A. Well, yes. The recruiters when I was at Kaplan were put
4 into teams. In other words, you'd have recruiters that recruit
5 for medical programs, recruiters that recruit for business
6 programs, and I had a large group of recruiters that recruited
7 for law and legal studies programs.
8 Q. Okay. Did you direct your recruiters -- well, let me
9 phrase it in a different way. Were your recruiters paid on a
10 bonus system?
11 A. Oh, absolutely.
12 Q. Describe that system.
13 A. The system was very simple.
14 MR. HAMMERMAN: Your Honor, I'm going to object,
15 foundation. How does he know how they were paid?
16 MR. BRINDLEY: Okay. I will ask him that question.
17 THE COURT: Lay a better foundation.
18 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
19 Q. Mr. Wilcox, when you were working as dean at Kaplan, did
20 you oversee the facilitation of your recruiters' receipt of
21 bonuses?
22 A. Yes, I did.
23 Q. Okay. Were bonuses made to your recruiters at your
24 direction by way of you filling out forms?
25 A. Yes.
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 Q. And can you describe for the jurors what kind of bonuses
2 the recruiters received?
3 A. They received cash bonuses, literal, not checks, literal
4 cash bonuses in envelopes. They received expensive watches,
5 cruises, trips around the world, calling cards, gift cards to
6 high-end department stores. Those were just some of the kind
7 of things that was done for achieving well in recruiting
8 students.
9 Q. Okay. Was all of this in violation of the Higher Learning
10 Commission's rules?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And did any of your supervisors work with you on
13 facilitating this process in paying the recruiters bonuses for
14 bringing in more students?
15 A. It was already in place when I got there.
16 Q. And who else worked with you in this capacity with respect
17 to recruiters?
18 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, vague.
19 THE COURT: Pardon me?
20 MR. HAMMERMAN: Vague.
21 THE COURT: Vague?
22 MR. HAMMERMAN: Yes.
23 THE COURT: Who else worked with him in
24 participating?
25 MR. HAMMERMAN: Yes, with respect to not the "who"
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 part, but what they did. It's totally wide open.
2 THE COURT: Well, you'll have an opportunity to
3 cross-examine.
4 MR. BRINDLEY: I can rephrase it more specifically if
5 that's going to help.
6 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
7 Q. Mr. Wilcox, were there any other supervisors at Kaplan who
8 worked with you to provide these bonuses to these recruiters?
9 A. The lead recruiter. They were in teams, so they had a lead
10 recruiter which had usually worked his way up to be the lead
11 recruiter. Then myself, David Harpool, and Andy Rosen.
12 Q. Okay. Now, did you oversee the conduct of the recruiters?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Did you direct the recruiters to lie to students?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. What kind of lies did you direct the recruiters to tell?
17 A. Well, they weren't really good at remembering a lot of
18 them, so I laminated them and made them a notebook. It said
19 things like: If a student has this object in coming to school,
20 if they say this, you say that. If they say this, you say
21 that. If they say this, you say that.
22 I laminated it, made a book out of it, a manual, if
23 you will, and the lies were encompassed in that so that they
24 could remember them. Things like we're accredited the same way
25 Harvard or Yale is accredited, we would tell them that. If a
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 student says he can't afford the $95 application fee, we would
2 say: Well, is there a family member who can loan it to you?
3 Is there a friend you can borrow it from? Is there something
4 you can take to a pawn shop?
5 If none of those worked, we had an agreement with a
6 credit card lender, one of these credit card lenders where you
7 pay $100 and then you got a credit card that's got like $300
8 credit on it. We would secure that credit card. We'd secured
9 a credit card for them and give it to the student. Of course,
10 the first thing we did was take the $95 off the credit card and
11 say: Now you've paid your application. Congratulations.
12 You're student at Kaplan University.
13 Q. Okay. Mr. Wilcox, when you were doing this, when you were
14 giving out these credit cards and were lying to the students or
15 directing your recruiters to do so, did you direct them to
16 target any certain category of persons?
17 A. That was one bit of research we had spent an extensive
18 amount of time on.
19 Q. And when you say "we", who's the "we" that researched and
20 determined who Kaplan's recruiters should be targeting?
21 A. Myself, Chris Caywood, David Harpool, and various others.
22 Q. Okay. Who did you direct the recruiters to target?
23 A. We knew who our students were. Our student was typically a
24 female, divorced, widowed, single, recently separated, two
25 children, 2.1 children -- how that worked out I never totally
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 understood -- 2.1 children, typically working one or two
2 minimum-wage-paying jobs, a typical student that knew that they
3 needed education to better their life but had no way to take
4 time out from their life and providing for their children to go
5 to school. So they would be interested in going to school
6 online where you could go when you wanted to go.
7 Q. And is that who you targeted?
8 A. We targeted them relentlessly.
9 Q. All right. Are you talking about poor people?
10 A. Poor people.
11 Q. Are these the people who you said you directed the
12 recruiters to lie to?
13 A. Sure.
14 Q. And is this information about how these lies were told and
15 how the violation of these rules with respect to recruitment
16 occurred at Kaplan, is that part of the lawsuit that you have
17 agreed to be a witness in?
18 A. Yes. It's heavily documented.
19 Q. Okay. Besides you, Mr. Wilcox, based on your knowledge of
20 this lawsuit, is there any other witness who has come forward
21 as an administrator who can testify about the inner workings of
22 how these recruiters were handled?
23 A. I'm the only insider that's ever come out of Kaplan with
24 this information and provided it.
UNION Obstruction
22 Q. Now, you talked about -- Mr. Wilcox, you talked on cross
23 about your opinions about certain people at Kaplan being
24 involved in conspiring and in illegal conduct. Now, you talked
25 about some attorneys from Jones Day. Was the law firm of Jones
1 Day used by Kaplan, and did you participate with that law firm
2 in attempting to circumvent the rules for unions?
3 A. I met with two senior partners at Jones Day, Mr. Dan Carter
4 and Mr. Doug Towns, who specialize in union issues and labor.
5 They're the two top labor lawyers in the United States.
6 Q. And did they talk with you about getting around the legal
7 requirements for unions?
8 A. They counseled me on it and laid out a very specific plan
9 on how to thwart the Teamsters.
10 Q. Okay. Did you consider that to be conspiring with Kaplan
11 to participate in these anti-union activities?
12 A. They warned me that --
13 Q. Mr. Wilcox, I'm not asking you what they said. I just want
14 you to answer the question I'm asking.
15 A. Okay.
16 Q. Did you consider that to be them working with Kaplan to get
17 around following the law with respect to unions?
18 A. They were retained by Kaplan, yes. We were working with
19 them. They worked for us.
20 Q. Counsel asked you about some other attorney from Kaplan.
21 Do you believe that that attorney from Kaplan was involved in
22 making some false representations about you and what happened
23 to you in federal court?
24 A. She lied about me and was later proven to have been lying
25 about me.
HLC and Accreditation fraud
2 Q. Mr. Wilcox, without talking about what the Government
3 wants, why is it important for a for-profit school like Kaplan
4 to be able to get student loan money from the Government?
5 A. Because they can't exist otherwise.
6 Q. Why do you say that?
7 A. Well, because their tuition, for instance, Kaplan runs from
8 $40,000 to $60,000 or more to complete a degree program.
9 That's a lot of money. Most people don't have that kind of
10 cash. Where do they get that kind of cash if they can't get it
11 from their family or they don't have it? They get a student
12 loan. Most every school is in that same boat.
13 Q. And when you were at Kaplan as dean of legal studies, were
14 you able to see where the bulk of the resources in the legal
15 studies department were coming from?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Where did they come from?
18 A. They came from student loans, almost 100 percent.
19 Q. Now, you said part of your job was to make sure that Kaplan
20 was able to get student loans for its programs. Is there some
21 sort of a governmental body that polices whether or not schools
22 meet requirements for getting student loans from the
23 Government?
24 A. Primarily two.
25 Q. And what are these bodies?
1 A. The Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and the
2 Higher Learning Commission, what we call the HLC, which is the
3 accrediting body.
4 Q. And in order to be able to receive any of those student
5 loan dollars, does a company like Kaplan have to meet the
6 requirements of the Higher Learning Commission?
7 A. Yes. If they don't meet those requirements and they're not
8 certified as accredited by the HLC, the Department of
9 Education, they're specifically not allowed to receive student
10 loan money.
11 Q. So when you worked at Kaplan, did you have to become
12 familiar with the HLC's or Higher Learning Commission's
13 requirements?
14 A. I became somewhat of an expert at it.
15 Q. And was meeting those requirements what you did on a
16 regular basis?
17 A. It was the daily goal of mine.
18 Q. Let me ask you a general question first, Mr. Wilcox. When
19 you were at Kaplan working on meeting these requirements so
20 that they could get all this student loan money, while you were
21 there and working there, did Kaplan meet these rules on your
22 watch honestly?
23 A. Not even close.
Student Loan Fraud
13 Q. Now, why was it, Mr. Wilcox, that you left Kaplan?
14 A. Well, while I worked at Kaplan, I became aware that Kaplan
15 corporate was involved in multiple schemes to defraud the
16 Government and the taxpayers of the United States of
17 approximately $1 billion. That's why I left Kaplan.
18 Q. Did you engage --
19 A. I became aware of the fraud, most, if not all, of the
20 fraudulent schemes that they were involved with to steal money
21 from the Federal Government.
22 Q. Did you engage in a series of disagreements with your
23 supervisors over these fraud issues?
24 A. I did. I called it to the attention of my supervisors,
25 Chris Caywood and David Harpool, certainly, who was the
1 president of the university, and multiple times to Andrew
2 Rosen, who was the CEO. I pointed these legal problems out.
3 Q. Okay. Now, Mr. Wilcox, after you left Kaplan, did you ever
4 tell anyone about the fraud that you had observed?
5 A. Yes. When I left Kaplan, I turned over some thousands of
6 internal documents to the Department of Education, United
7 States Department of Education. I also turned over thousands
8 of documents and hundreds of e-mails to the Office of the
9 Inspector General, to the EEOC, to the Higher Learning
10 Commission, the HLC. Then I contacted a world-renowned false
11 claims qui tam law firm in Tampa, Florida, and provided the
12 documentation to them to file a false claims action on behalf
13 of the taxpayers of the United States for $1 billion in
14 fraudulently received funds, to retrieve them.
15 Q. And, Mr. Wilcox, did you agree to become a witness in that
16 lawsuit?
17 A. Yes. At that point, I had become a whistle blower, what
18 the court has since said and certified me as.
19 MR. FERRARA: Objection, Your Honor. It's hearsay as
20 to what the court said.
21 THE COURT: I'll sustain the objection as to what
22 they said. He can describe what happened.
23 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
24 Q. Mr. Wilcox, can you describe what happened? Without saying
25 what any court said, what have you done with respect to
1 becoming a witness in this lawsuit?
2 A. I'm the whistle blower and the original source of the
3 documentation to prove the fraud of Kaplan University for a
4 billion dollars worth of stolen money from the United States
5 Government and the taxpayers.
Grade inflation
20 Q. Okay. Now, Mr. Wilcox, you mentioned that on Exhibit WW
21 the faculty pay is listed. Is there a correlation between the
22 pay the faculty received and the grades that the faculty gave?
23 A. Clearly, yes.
24 Q. And what is that correlation?
25 A. If you gave good grades, you were rehired for the next
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 semester and you were given a higher rate of pay. If you gave
2 bad grades, you possibly weren't asked to teach the next
3 semester and you certainly weren't given a raise.
4 Q. And is that information illustrated by these documents that
5 you've discussed?
6 A. That's what it tracks.
7 Q. Okay. Mr. Wilcox, are these a representative sample of
8 some of the documents that you provided of part of the lawsuit?
9 A. That's four documents of about 2,000.
10 Q. And, Mr. Wilcox, these kinds of documents that we've just
11 looked at, is there anyone else in the lawsuit that's come
12 forward that's capable of -- as you know, that was an
13 administrator who could interpret the meaning of these
14 documents and the correlation with the grading inflation
15 besides you?
16 MR. HAMMERMAN: Objection, foundation.
17 MR. BRINDLEY: I asked if there was anybody he knew
18 about in the lawsuit. He said he's participating in it.
19 THE COURT: The objection will be overruled. He may
20 answer if he can.
21 BY THE WITNESS:
22 A. I'm the only insider that's ever gotten out of Kaplan with
23 those kinds of documents.
24 MR. BRINDLEY: One minute, Your Honor.
25 (Discussion off the record.)
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 MR. BRINDLEY: Your Honor, could we take a brief
2 recess? Could we take a break? Is that possible?
3 THE COURT: How much longer?
4 MR. BRINDLEY: Your Honor, I have a lot. There's a
5 lot more to go here, Your Honor. We have a lot more topic
6 areas to cover.
7 THE COURT: Let's have a brief sidebar without the
8 court reporter.
9 (Discussion at sidebar off the record.)
10 THE COURT: We're going to take about a ten-minute
11 break, ladies and gentlemen. We'll call you back momentarily.
12 (Jury out.)
13 THE COURT: Court stands in recess.
14 (Recess.)
15 THE COURT: Ready to proceed?
16 MR. BRINDLEY: I am, Your Honor.
17 THE COURT: Okay. Schedule-wise, why don't we step
18 over here for a second.
19 MR. BRINDLEY: Sure.
20 (Discussion at sidebar off the record.)
21 THE COURT: Okay. You can bring them in.
22 (Jury in.)
23 THE COURT: You may be seated.
24 You may continue, Mr. Brindley.
25 MR. BRINDLEY: Thank you, Your Honor.
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
2 Q. Mr. Wilcox, you indicated that the policy of Kaplan as
3 indicated by some of the charts that you discussed was that
4 professors were to inflate the grades, is that correct?
5 A. That's correct.
6 Q. As a result of that, I mean, what value do the degrees have
7 if the grades are inflated?
8 A. Well, the purpose of inflating the grades were to keep the
9 students enrolled and thus retaining student loan funds coming
10 into the school.
11 Q. Okay. As a result of doing that, what value do the degrees
12 end of up having?
13 A. The degrees at Kaplan have very little value.
14 Q. Okay. Now, Mr. Wilcox, when an instructor -- was there
15 ever an instructor who refused to inflate grades? Did that
16 happen?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And when that happened, were steps taken to change that
19 instructor's grades?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Okay. Did you participate and observe the actual changing
22 of instructors' grades when they refused to inflate them?
23 A. Yes, I did.
24 Q. And can you tell me who actually physically changed the
25 grades?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 A. That I witnessed, Chris Caywood did.
2 Q. And did this happen on more than one occasion?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And did you observe that?
5 A. I did.
6 Q. And some of these changed grade reports, have you included
7 those in the materials that have been provided with the
8 lawsuit?
9 A. Yes, I have.
10 Q. Now, Mr. Wilcox, you've looked at some documents today.
11 Regarding this fraud, is it fair to say that these are a
12 representative sample?
13 A. Yes, it's a representative sample.
14 Q. Okay. The great majority of the documents that you've
15 turned over, where are they now?
16 A. They're in the possession of the Department of Education,
17 the Department of Justice, and the Andrews Law Group that's
18 overseeing the qui tam action.
19 Q. So the documents that we talked about in specific, are
20 those the ones to which you have personal access now?
21 A. Yes, these are the ones I still have now.
22 Q. Okay. Now, the inflation of grades and the documents
23 underlying that, is that another part of the lawsuit that
24 you're a witness on and the documents that you've provided? Is
25 that part of that same thing?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Now, Mr. Wilcox, we've discussed a multitude of different
3 kinds of fraud that you participated in at Kaplan, and it seems
4 like you were involved in unrelenting fraud when you went to
5 work there. If you can tell the jury, why did you do it?
6 A. I was making a lot of money. I mean, I wish I had some
7 better explanation. I wanted to keep my job. Coming out of
8 state schools not making much money, I made a lot of money. I
9 wanted to keep my job.
10 Q. Now, Mr. Wilcox, you mentioned that you had problems with
11 this unionizing -- this leader of the union effort, Carlos
12 Diaz. Did you have other problems with Mr. Diaz related to the
13 inflation of grades?
14 A. Yes, he refused to do it.
15 Q. Did you personally put pressure on Mr. Diaz to inflate
16 grades?
17 A. In every way I possibly could.
18 Q. Did you direct his supervisors to put pressure on him to
19 inflate grades?
20 A. Yes, I did.
21 Q. And did Mr. Diaz refuse?
22 A. He absolutely refused.
23 Q. Did Mr. Diaz threaten to turn you and Kaplan in for the
24 pressure being put on him?
25 A. He threatened and filed complaints.
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 Q. Okay. This is the same guy that was trying to organize the
2 union.
3 A. Yes, he was.
4 Q. So when Mr. Diaz was trying to unionize and filing
5 complaints, at that time did you have any actual justification
6 that could have justified terminating Carlos Diaz?
7 A. At that time, no.
8 Q. Okay. Was Carlos Diaz a good instructor?
9 A. Carlos was a very good instructor.
10 Q. Did he receive positive reviews? The real reviews, were
11 they positive?
12 A. His immediate supervisors gave him very good reviews.
13 Q. Okay. So, Mr. Wilcox, when there was no grounds to
14 terminate him and you had been directed to terminate him, what
15 actions were taken? Well, let me rephrase that. Were actions
16 taken to try to manufacture a reason to terminate Mr. Diaz?
17 A. Yes, that's what we began to focus on.
18 Q. And do you remember a specific incident in which any false
19 communications were produced for the purpose of manufacturing a
20 reason to terminate Carlos Diaz?
21 A. Yes, I do.
22 Q. All right. Now, Mr. Wilcox, could you describe for the
23 jury what happened in this incident?
24 A. We referred to it as the Jodi Dufrane incident. Jodi
25 Dufrane was the student involved. Ms. Dufrane was a student of
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 Carlos in one of his courses. Kaplan is an online university.
2 Everything is done online. So tests were given online.
3 Ms. Dufrane had filed a complaint against Carlos, and it had
4 come up through his supervisor to me as the dean. So I
5 investigated the complaint. Along with the vice-president of
6 academics, Chris Caywood, we investigated the claim.
7 Q. And did your investigation indicate that Mr. Diaz had done
8 anything wrong?
9 A. No. Ms. Dufrane, she had taken a test in his class. It
10 was a 100-point test. She had scored a zero. She had somehow
11 managed to take a test and not get any answers right. She was
12 very upset about this because it failed her. She had filed a
13 complaint that had come up to me, and her complaint was that
14 the professor had posted a test one evening, he had posted the
15 test, she took the test, and then he took that test down and
16 put up another test. All the other students took that test and
17 got their respective grades but, of course, she had taken the
18 wrong test, and thus her answers were bad and she had failed.
19 She thought this had been done maliciously, and Mr. Diaz was
20 unrelenting in failing her. So she complained to me, and I
21 investigated the complaint with Chris Caywood.
22 Q. Okay. Based on your investigation, what did you determine?
23 A. What I determined is that Ms. Dufrane had hacked back into
24 an old class and secured an old test back from the semester
25 before. Oftentimes professors will give the same test over and
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 over and over and over again, and at some point they change it.
2 She had secured a copy of the old test and a copy of the old
3 answers.
4 What I learned from my investigation was that if you
5 laid the old answers over the old test, Ms. Dufrane would have
6 scored a 100. She would have aced the test. But when you laid
7 her answers over the new test, because it had been completely
8 changed, she scored a zero. What I ascertained wasn't that the
9 instructor had done anything wrong. He had only posted one
10 test. What I had ascertained was that the student had cheated.
11 Q. Okay. After ascertaining the student cheated, did you and
12 Mr. Caywood support Mr. Diaz's allegations that he hadn't done
13 anything wrong, or did you do something else?
14 A. No, we saw this as an excellent opportunity, a windfall to
15 us. We supported the student fully. We said that her claims
16 were correct, that the professor had, in fact, probably
17 switched the test maliciously for various reasons, and then we
18 went and set about to discredit Mr. Diaz, the instructor.
19 Q. And who was it that took these steps to try to discredit
20 Mr. Diaz in relation to this incident?
21 A. That was Chris Caywood, vice-president of academics.
22 Q. Okay. In fact, this incident with Ms. Dufrane, was it
23 documented in a memorandum at Kaplan?
24 A. It was.
25 MR. BRINDLEY: May I approach the witness?
B. Wilcox - direct by Brindley
1 THE COURT: You may.
2 (Discussion off the record.)
3 BY MR. BRINDLEY:
4 Q. Mr. Wilcox, I'm showing
STATES D
