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President-elect Donald Trump has struck a $25 million settlement of the fraud cases brought in New York and California involving his now defunct for-profit Trump University.
The agreement spares Trump — who vowed never to settle the cases — the embarrassment of having to testify in a class action lawsuit in California that was supposed to begin the Monday after Thanksgiving.
“The victims of Trump University have waited years for today’s result and I am pleased that their patience — and persistence — will be rewarded by this $25 million settlement,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who in 2013 filed a $40 million fraud lawsuit against Trump.
Under the deal negotiated by Trump’s lawyers, Schneiderman and the law firms that brought two separate class action lawsuits regarding Trump University in California, the President-elect agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the matter.
Of that, $21 million will help reimburse those in the two California class action suits — many of whom were also part of the case brought by Schneiderman.
New York will get an additional $3 million to repay people who were not covered by the California lawsuits.
And Trump agreed to pay up to a $1 million penalty for violating New York education law by running an unlicensed university, a source said.
The lawsuits have dogged Trump — and led him to claim that the judge overseeing two of the cases was biased because he was of Mexican ancestry.
Trump does not admit to any wrongdoing in the final agreement, announced Friday afternoon at a federal court hearing in California.
“He’s not admitting any wrongdoing, and that’s fine, but I think the amount of money — $25 million — speaks to the merits of the claims that we had,” one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Patrick Coughlin, told the Daily News.
One former student from Manhattan said she wasn’t surprised the billionaire chose to settle.
“Companies will always settle because they don’t want to see a jury,” the 68-year-old, who asked that her name be withheld, told the Daily News. “I’m just happy to be compensated, but it was the principle of the matter.”
The News first reported the emerging compromise on its website Friday morning.
“Donald Trump fought us every step of the way, filing baseless charges and fruitless appeals and refusing to settle for even modest amounts of compensation for the victims of his phony university,” Schneiderman said. “Today, that all changes.”
With the trial date approaching — and Trump getting ready to take office — U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel pushed for aggressive settlement talks among all the parties.
He said he needs to review the deal before signing off on it.
“The court has work to do to make sure the settlement proposed is fair, is adequate, is reasonable,” Curiel said Friday.
He said he hoped the settlement could be part of a healing process after the election “that this country very sorely needs.”
During his campaign, Trump said Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican parents, couldn’t be impartial because of his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump had publicly vowed not to settle the matter.
“I could have settled this case numerous times, but I don’t want to settle cases when we’re right,” he said in May.
A rep for his company said he now has bigger issues on his mind.
“While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows President-elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation,” said a Trump Organization spokeswoman.
Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said, “President-elect Trump is keenly interested in tackling the problems of our country and moving forward, and this is part of that.”
Schneiderman crowed that the $25 million deal “is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
Schneiderman’s 2013 suit against Trump University claimed the school was nothing but a scam designed to make money for Trump by falsely promising wannabe real estate developers they would learn the tricks of the trade from Trump and his hand-picked teachers.
Instead, those who enrolled were pressured to take more expensive programs from people not selected by Trump. The closest they got to Trump himself was when they were able to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of him, Schneiderman alleged.
Trump has denied the allegations of fraud, saying 98% of the people who signed up for the programs expressed satisfaction, and blistered Schneiderman as a “lightweight.”
The lawyers for the San Diego-filed cases said they are not taking the millions of dollars of attorney fees they’d be entitled to.
“It was just more important in this case, with the posture of his (Trump) winning the presidency, just to get this done and not have it drag out, not only for our clients but for the country,” Coughlin said. “We really hope he gets going and does stuff in better way.”