Pharmacy students take financial hit
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Students of a Kapolei pharmacy college that abruptly shut down last year will likely only get 23 cents for every dollar they are owed.
Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna ordered the Hawaii College of Pharmacy on Tuesday to pay $6.5 million in restitution for alleged deceptive practices. She also ruled that one of the school's co-founders, David Monroe, is liable for $7.5 million in fines.
But the Office of Consumer Protection, which sued the school on behalf of its 300 mostly out-of-town students in July 2005, said yesterday the school's court-appointed receivers have only been able to recover about $1.5 million, or about 23 percent of the tuition collected by the school.
"The money has just gone down the expense hole," said Jeffrey Brunton, staff attorney for the Office of Consumer Protection.
Monroe and school co-founder Denise Criswell could not be reached for comment. The school's attorney, Tom Weber, declined to comment.
The Hawaii College of Pharmacy shut down in August 2005 after McKenna froze assets owned by the school and Monroe and Criswell.
The state alleged that the college, which charged annual tuition of about $28,000, misrepresented its accreditation, misled students that it had received state approval and retaliated against students who filed complaints with the state.
According to Brunton, the school's court-appointed receivers Ben Fujimoto and Rebecca Yee were able to recover some money from a stock brokerage account held by Monroe and by selling a condominium owned by Criswell.
The receivers also recovered about $200,000 that Monroe had put down as a deposit on a commercial property in Kapolei, he said. But Brunton said most of the money collected for tuition had already been spent on the school's operating costs such as rent for classrooms and salaries for staffers.
According to the state, Monroe and Criswell are barred from owning or operating a business in Hawai'i until all payments are made.
"We are pleased to have stopped this school's operations, and to have prevented further harm to its students," said Stephen Levins, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection.
I'm also glad ACPE is getting stricter on regulating pharmacy education and setting up specific new rules for opening up schools of pharmacy. I just wished they could have done it sooner.
