Courtesy of Benzinga.
Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) announced today that the United States Department of Justice has notified the Company that it is the subject of a preliminary investigation concerning Federal False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. Section 3729 et seq.) claims. The Company understands that a former employee alleged UTI’s compensation of its enrollment counselors violated the “incentive compensation ban” of Title IV of the Higher Education Act, amongst other potential violations allegedly occurring over a number of years. The Company intends to fully cooperate with the DOJ’s preliminary investigation. There are no requests for production of documents to date. Pursuant to applicable law and the United States’ request, UTI cannot make further disclosures concerning this matter.
The same former employee who made allegations subject to the aforementioned DOJ preliminary investigation also filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, alleging retaliatory employment practices in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Company received a request from the DOL in May 2012 to furnish documents and other information in response to this complaint. The Company believes that the former employee was properly terminated based upon failure of performance and not for any illegal or retaliatory reason, and it intends to vigorously defend the claims asserted. The Company has timely provided the information requested by the government and will continue to cooperate fully with the DOL.
