Five Point Enterprises VA Settlement: One Scholarship, Two Payment Questions

Five Point Enterprises agreed to pay $2,049,159 in its VA settlement to resolve allegations that it enrolled veterans in courses exceeding the supported-student limit and failed to report tuition discounts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agreement’s allegations connected school-funded assistance to both the enrollment count and the tuition bill, naming the Success Through Learning scholarship in the count. If you worked with course rosters, scholarship awards or VA certifications, those records may show how the school described the same student differently when asking for government money.

The Justice Department announced the settlement on August 8, 2024. This page follows Five Point’s covered schools, scholarship allegations and settlement terms; our explanation of GI Bill school payments follows the broader approval and certification process.

What Did the Five Point Enterprises Agreement Cover?

The agreement covered alleged false Post-9/11 GI Bill claims at 20 New Horizons franchise locations operated by Five Point Enterprises, LLC. Five Point was based in Austin, Texas, and operated for-profit vocational schools offering non-college degree programs until 2021. Its franchise agreements were with New Horizons Franchising Group, Inc. and other New Horizons businesses.

The agreement’s school schedule fixes the covered period separately for each location. Most begin on January 1, 2015; Memphis, Carmel and Harrisburg begin on January 1, 2018. Every listed period ends on December 31, 2020.

The VA Office of Inspector General provided substantial assistance in the investigation. Within the settlement total, the civil agreement designated $1,024,331 as restitution.

How Did the Supported-Student Ratio Affect VA Claims?

The supported-student ratio concerned whether veterans could enroll in a course with VA funding. Under the rule as the agreement describes it, a course crossed the limit when more than 85% of its students had all or part of their tuition, fees or other charges paid by the school or VA. The agreement identifies this as the 85/15 rule. The Justice Department explained that it was intended to keep programs from surviving only on federal benefits by requiring a substantial number of non-supported students.

The settlement agreement alleged that Five Point knowingly enrolled VA-funded veterans in courses that exceeded that limit. It names Success Through Learning as the scholarship through which Five Point allegedly paid student charges. School support belonged in the count alongside VA support.

A student whose tuition never reached a VA invoice could still belong on the supported side because the school supplied a scholarship. Counting only the students whose charges VA paid would miss the school-funded part of the allegation.

The course was the unit of comparison. An employee familiar with scholarship awards and actual enrollment may therefore know something that a count of veterans across the entire franchise would miss. We connect that knowledge to the particular course and the certification used to seek its funding.

A different enrollment-count allegation appeared in the Universal Helicopters and Dodge City Community College settlement. The Justice Department alleged that Dodge City counted part-time students taking one online class per semester as full-time students in its joint helicopter flight-instructor program. On that enrollment count, one online class became full-time study.

How Did Net Tuition Change the VA Payment?

Net tuition determined how much the Department of Veterans Affairs would pay for an eligible veteran’s course. In its account of Five Point’s settlement, the Justice Department explained that VA paid the actual net tuition and fees after scholarships, waivers, grants and other assistance designed to cover those charges. This was the last payer rule behind the second allegation.

The Justice Department alleged that Five Point failed to report all scholarships, discounts, tuition waivers and tuition reductions it provided to veterans. Those reductions changed what the school could ask VA to cover. We see a peculiar kind of discount in the Justice Department’s allegation: it lowers the student’s charge and leaves taxpayers with the old bill.

The agreement’s Success Through Learning allegation makes the connection between school support and government payment concrete. School-funded assistance could put a student on the supported side of a course’s enrollment count, while a tuition reduction affected the amount reported for payment. The roster and the tuition account answered different questions about the same assistance.

For a certifying official or finance employee, the useful comparison is the tuition charge after the applicable scholarship or waiver beside the amount sent to VA. The scholarship’s terms explain what it covered, and the student’s account shows whether the school applied it. We examine how that information reached the person responsible for the certification and whether the payment request reflected it.

VA’s certification guidance describes school officials reporting the program, enrollment dates, mode of instruction, credit or clock hours and charges through Enrollment Manager. It also describes a second Chapter 33 certification after drop/add to verify actual tuition and fees. That later certification provides another point at which the amount reported can be compared with the student’s account.

Veterans’ school benefits follow Department of Veterans Affairs rules, separate from the Education Department’s Title IV student aid system. Our explanation of the different government education funding programs follows those payment routes; Five Point’s settlement concerns the school’s VA claims.

Why Five Point Enterprises Is Separate From NH Learning Solutions

Five Point’s settlement did not cover NH Learning Solutions Corporation. The agreement named that company and the United States’ separate case in the Eastern District of Michigan. The New Horizons brand appeared in both businesses’ operations, but the agreements attached to different companies and claims.

NH Learning Solutions was based in Livonia, Michigan, and also operated vocational schools offering non-college degree programs under New Horizons franchise agreements. The Justice Department alleged that five locations in Illinois, Ohio and Michigan reported tuition without subtracting scholarships, grants or waivers. In its October 2024 announcement, the Justice Department described a separate agreement requiring NH Learning to pay $975,000. Five Point’s agreement instead sets out its own school schedule and both the enrollment-ratio and tuition-reporting allegations.

An insider who knows the franchise may recognize a similar scholarship practice across locations. We tie that account to the operator, school, course and payment involved. Five Point’s express exclusion of NH Learning shows why the company behind the school name matters to the case.

What the Five Point Case Means for a School Insider

Five Point’s allegations connect records that school employees may encounter in different jobs: the course roster, the scholarship award, the tuition account and the VA certification. Someone who knows who received school support can explain the enrollment count. Someone who knows which charges the school waived can explain the amount left for VA to pay.

The Justice Department also alleged false certifications of compliance that mattered to the reimbursement claims. An instruction about which students to count, or which reductions to report, can connect a discrepancy to the people making the payment decisions. We examine the school records behind the public payment with you, including the original certification, any amendment and the payment or adjustment that followed.

If you saw a scholarship omitted from the count or a tuition reduction omitted from a claim, your knowledge helps explain why the school’s report differed from its own records. A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. We work with you to connect what you saw to the government’s payment and the decisions that produced it.

You Know the Scholarship Behind the VA Claim

If your work put the scholarship decision, 85/15 count or VA tuition certification in front of you, talk with our whistleblower experts about what the school reported. We build the case with you and bring in education fraud whistleblower lawyers who understand how school support affects veterans’ benefit claims. We stay with you as your knowledge of the school’s decisions becomes the foundation of the case.