A federal appeals court last week reversed a lower court ruling that had dismissed a lawsuit filed by a student who was defrauded by a fake university created by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, court documents show.
O ruling handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 25 opens the door for Teja Ravi and others to sue the fake college, which was created by ICE in 2015 and advertised online.
The fictional University of Farmington, part of an undercover operation, came to public light in 2019 when eight people were indicted in Michigan on charges of visa fraud and “harboring aliens for profit.”
The operation aimed to combat fraud involving student visas, but the university did not offer classes, curriculum or educators, according to court documents.
Ravi was one of the people deceived when he signed up for the fake school and was never reimbursed, he alleged in the lawsuit.
The Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night on the lawsuit’s claims or the appeals court ruling.
“The government operation eventually came to light, but the government did not provide the paid education or return the money to Mr. Ravi,” the appeals court wrote in its opinion.
Ravi, an Indian citizen who lived in Houston when he enrolled in 2018, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all other students, alleging breach of contract.
Ravi said in the lawsuit that he paid $12,500 in tuition to what he considered a legitimate higher education institution. He said he even received emails from people posing as university employees, which gave it an air of legitimacy.
Two other prospective students named in the lawsuit paid tuition of $10,000 and $15,000, respectively, according to the lawsuit.
In March, a trial judge dismissed Ravi’s lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction over the matter.
The appeals court reversed the decision and remanded the case.
He cited case law and precedents to answer whether the government, when performing a sovereign function – such as a criminal investigation and prosecution – was involved in an agreement similar to those entered into by private entities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, stopped operating the fake school in 2019.
ICE acknowledged that the school was a setupand said the eight defendants charged in the investigation conspired to recruit people for what an ICE official described in a 2020 statement as “an illegal pay-to-stay scam”.
Ravi, who was not charged, enrolled in 2018 in hopes of earning a master’s degree in information technology, a year before the school was exposed as fake, the federal appeals court wrote in its ruling.
After the fake school was exposed, Ravi left the US and returned to India, court documents say.
Ravi’s attorney in the civil case did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
The eight people indicted in the conspiracy case were accused of trying to illegally help hundreds of foreign citizens stay and work in the U.S. by enrolling them in what turned out to be the fake ICE school.
They were sentenced in 2020 to prison sentences ranging between 6 months and two years, the US Attorney‘The Detroit office said at the time.
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