BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has taken action against Hosanna College of Health by suing the company over allegations of operating without a license.
The attorney general’s complaint alleges Hosanna, a for-profit school, and its two founding executives, Jackson Augustin and Michelle Desarmes, falsely promised an education to Boston’s Haitian community that would allow them to pass national nursing exams and obtain jobs.
“These students invested their hopes and dreams in this program but instead paid thousands of dollars for an ineffective, low-quality education that failed to provide a path to a nursing career,” Healey said. “We allege this school aggressively recruited and misled students from the Haitian community in order to generate a profit. Our office will continue to investigate and act against predatory schools that take advantage of students in Massachusetts.”
Hosanna is not licensed to offer classes or degrees in the state, yet charged students as much as $10,000 for their education.
Healey’s office will seek restitution for students, including tuition and fee reimbursement plus money paid to travel to the school’s Florida headquarters for clinical training.
The case is being handled by assistant attorneys general Tiffany Bartz and Claire Masinton, along with legal analyst David Lim and paralegal Katherine Hurley, all of the Attorney General’s Insurance & Financial Services Division, with assistance from investigator Anthony Crespi of the Civil Investigations Division.