Former students of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Trump University say that the millionaire real estate mogul's college program was a money-sucking scam run by "a bunch of frauds."
According to the New York Daily News, ex-student Robert Guillo, 75, said that every workshop and class he attended charged a fee and that the nature of the business became clear to him very quickly.
“As soon as I attended the first workshop, I knew I had been scammed,” Guillo said to the NYDN. “Every single workshop, they charged you another amount. Everything was to get you to spend more and more and more.”
The office of New York's attorney general said that former students in New York and California have filed suit against the now-defunct institution, claiming that instructors urged them to run up massive amounts of credit card debt to complete the training program.
In order to pay for their training, Trump University officials told students to make up the name of a phony business and lie about their income in order to get higher credit limits with which to pay for their workshops and apprenticeships. Many students spent up to $25,000 and $35,000 just to attend classes, only to have their credit scores crater after the fact.
Kathleen Meese of Schoharie, New York said that an instructor pressured her to charge $25,000 on her credit card in order to qualify for the school's "Gold Elite" program. Meese said she balked at the figure because she has to care for her son who has Down syndrome.
The instructor, Meese said, "told me that I had to sign up for Trump Gold Elite for $25,000 to help my family. He said he had a son, so he knew how family meant everything to me.”
He promised she would make the money back in sixty days after she completed the course. Finally, she put the charge on her card, a fee that she is still trying to pay off years later.
“I wasted my entire life savings on Trump,” said Staten Island resident Nelly Cunningham. “I spent $1,495 on the Trump three-day seminar and $24,995 on the Trump Gold Elite mentorship package, only to be demeaned and belittled. I feel like such a fool.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told the Daily News that some 600 former students have filed suit in the Manhattan Supreme Court. A similar pair of class action suits are pending in California.
Former Trump University students say that the school promised them that their money was not going to Donald Trump, but was instead being used to expand and develop the university. Schneiderman said that Trump personally made at least $5 million off of the scam.
Guillo -- who lost nearly $35,000 to Trump U -- says that the businessman is a magnetic swindler who is selling snake oil to the gullible.
“Donald Trump has charisma. He’s got the greatest persona of any of the Republican candidates and even the Democratic candidates,” he said.
“And if you’re not sophisticated, he makes a pitch before the Iowa fair and he gives a speech, they believe all this stuff," Guillo said. “But when it comes down to solutions, he’s not specific about anything. And people are buying it.”
Nora Hann, 62, of Seagate, Brooklyn fought mightily to get her money back after spending $35,000 on Trump University. She doesn't believe the former reality TV star will make it to the White House.
“I don’t think he’s going to make it. He has a big mouth. He’s just stirring up trouble,” she said to the Daily News. “I think they’re a bunch of frauds. They told us that he was going to be there. He wasn’t there. This is not $3,500. This is $35,000. It’s crazy.”