Judge gives nod to $28M deal to settle investor suit vs DeVry over grad job rate claims; Lawyers to get $7M – COOK COUNTY RECORD
DeVry University has agreed to pay $27.5 million — with plaintiff attorneys collecting $7.4 million — to settle a class action suit, in which an investment group alleged publicity surrounding DeVry’s falsification of graduate success rates caused the value of the school’s publicly traded stock to drop, soaking investors.
Utah Retirement Systems filed the suit in 2016, on behalf of itself and other investors, against DeVry in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Utah Retirement described itself as a “highly sophisticated institutional investor” that provides retirement benefits to Utah’s public school employees, managing about $33 billion in assets as of 2018. DeVry is based in suburban Downers Grove, with about 60 campuses across the country.
The suit alleged that between 2011 and 2016, DeVry exaggerated the employment figures and incomes of graduates, so as to lure new students and give the wrong impression to the public DeVry was in better financial shape than it was in reality. DeVry has denied wrongdoing. There have been at least three suits in Chicago federal court against DeVry, by former students claiming they were misled by the graduate statistics.