Arthur Green promised the desperate a dream. For a price.
“I’m going to sell you a dream for the taxpayer’s cash,” his sales pitch went.
In reality…
“I’m selling them a $40,000 lie,” he concedes.
Green spent three years recruiting Northeast Ohio students to the University of Phoenix. But it wasn’t only students he said he duped. Green and fellow workers took out government-paid tuition waivers and pocketed tens of thousands of dollars every year.
With the money, Phoenix workers took trips, bought cars and jewelry. Some used the cash as a down payment on a home.
“It was a bonus. Exactly,” he said.
It all ended when he sent an email to a fellow employee at their Beachwood office. Green wanted to blow the whistle on the online giant’s recruiting methods.
“I was fired because I was going to blow a multi-billion dollar whistle. That’s why I was fired,” he said.