Clinton-backed college seeks cash amid $4.7 billion debt

NEW YORK – The for-profit college with close ties to the Clinton Foundation that paid Bill Clinton through a shell corporation more than $16 million since 2010 to be its “honorary chairman” and international pitchman plans to go public despite some $4.7 billion in corporate debt.

Those who stand the most to gain when Laureate Education goes public include top-name, left-leaning investors attracted by the cache of Bill Clinton’s endorsement such as George Soros, Henry Kravis of Wall Street investment banking firm KKR and Paul Allen of Microsoft fame.

WND reported Bill and Hillary Clinton’s attack on Donald Trump over Trump University could invite increased scrutiny of the Clintons’ involvement in Laureate. While the Clintons were collecting millions, Hillary Clinton’s State Department funneled at least $55 million to a group run by the CEO of the college company, Laureate Education Inc. In addition, attorneys suing Trump U paid $675,000 to the Clintons for speeches, and the firm suing Trump University was founded by a wealthy San Diego lawyer who served a two-year sentence in federal prison for his role in a kickback scheme to mobilize plaintiffs for class-action lawsuits.

A study published by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in 2012 warned that going public increases the financial pressure to generate a profit. Typically, the relatively small number of first-stage investors that brought the for-profit college as a private entity to the IPO stage are taken out by a larger number of public and institutional investors that anticipate continuing competitive stock appreciation of the public company.

More