Los Angeles Film School Accused by Former Execs of Massive Scam Involving Fake Jobs for Graduates; Former Eagles Running Back Wendell Smallwood Sentenced to Prison for Tax and COVID Fraud, and other C-Virus related stories

Courtesy LAFS

Los Angeles Film School Accused by Former Execs of Massive Scam Involving Fake Jobs for Graduates:

Two former executives at the Los Angeles Film School allege in a lawsuit that the school has operated a massive student loan scam for years that involves arranging for thousands of fake job placements for its graduates.

The executives also claim that the school, located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, lied to the Department of Education during a 2017 audit in an effort to cover up the fraud.

Dave Phillips, the school’s former VP of career development, and Ben Chaib, the former VP of admissions, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school in 2024. The suit, unsealed earlier this year, alleges that “nearly all” of the tens of millions of dollars the school receives each year from federal student aid programs is the result of fraud.

The suit accuses the school of “hoodwinking” thousands of students with false claims about graduates’ prospects for employment.

The school offers two- and four-year degrees in film and music production, animation and other fields, with tuition ranging from $40,000 to $80,000 per program, according to its website.

According to the suit, Phillips “observed the vast majority of LAFS graduates were not able to obtain entry level positions.” The lawsuit quotes an internal agenda stating that most graduates “report a yearly income of 0-$5,000 in their field of study.”

LAFS receives about $85 million per year in federal assistance, of which about $60 million comes from student loans, the suit states. Another $19 million comes in veterans’ education grants.

The school is owned by James “Bill” Heavener, the CEO, and three partners, who also own and control Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla. Like LAFS, Full Sail also offers online and in-person instruction in entertainment production and related fields. According to the complaint, Full Sail receives $377 million per year in federal assistance.

The two former executives allege in the lawsuit that LAFS and Full Sail engaged in fraud in order to meet a key accreditation benchmark — namely, that at least 70% of graduates are able to find work in their field. If they failed to maintain their accreditation, the schools risked losing eligibility for federal student aid.

The complaint alleges that LAFS executives estimated that, at best, 20% of graduates would be able to find work on their own, and so for the remaining 50%, they had to “engineer the gigs.” --->READ MORE HERE

Former Eagles running back Wendell Smallwood sentenced to prison for tax and COVID fraud:

Wendell Smallwood Jr., a former NFL running back for the Philadelphia Eagles and a Wilmington-area native, will serve time in prison for fraud.

Smallwood was sentenced on Sept. 18 in Wilmington to a year and six months in prison, as well as $645,000 in restitution. The sentencing follows his guilty plea earlier this year to felony wire fraud, conspiracy and tax fraud tied to pandemic-era economic relief programs.

Smallwood played high school football at Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016 and played five seasons in the league with three different teams through 2020.

After his professional career ended, prosecutors said he turned to fraud. In court, prosecutors said he stole more than $500,000 in COVID-19 economic relief funds through fraudulent applications submitted to the government for nonexistent or defunct companies in his and others' names.

In some cases, he personally received the proceeds and in some, he received kickbacks. He personally profited by at least $200,000 from the federal program fraud, prosecutors said in court documents.

He also successfully submitted $110,000 worth of false tax returns for people he recruited to a separate fraud scheme that also involved kickbacks, prosecutors said. They added that the scale of kickbacks he received for orchestrating those fraudulent applications is unclear.

In court, Smallwood apologized to the government and the community. --->READ MORE HERE

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