The owner of a for-profit trade school has been convicted of bilking the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of $72 million and of misleading student Veterans.
After nearly seven hours of deliberation, a federal jury on April 15 found Jonathan Dean Davis, 43, the owner of Retail Ready Career Center, guilty of seven counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering, according to a Department of Justice release.
“Mr. Davis lied to multiple government agencies in order to swindle Veterans out of their hard-won GI Bill benefits. While graduates of Retail Ready were just scraping by, Mr. Davis was living the high life,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah.
According to evidence presented at his trial, Davis marketed Retail Ready’s six-week HVAC training course to Veterans whose tuition and fees would be covered by the post-9/11 GI Bill.
The release states that Davis, who was essentially broke at the time of the crime, realized that he could charge $18,000 to $21,000 per student for the six-week course if he could get approval from the VA to accept GI Bill payments for tuition – which required prior approvals from the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Veterans Commission.
“Owners of schools that are entrusted with the education of our nation’s Veterans will be held accountable if they defraud the post-911 GI Bill program or Veteran students,” VA OIG Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Breen said.
The agencies required applicants to certify that they were not personally facing any criminal or civil actions and to prove that their schools were established educational institutions in stable financial condition. Knowing he could not meet these requirements, Davis repeatedly lied and concealed information from the agencies. the release states.
“Several decisions lie ahead that will ultimately make the difference if I succeed or if I fail. More gut-wrenching conversations, more humiliating experiences, more lying is in order,” Davis wrote in an electronic journal he kept on his computer, which was recovered by federal agents during a search of Retail Ready. The journal became a key piece of evidence at trial.
Davis told the TWC that he was not subject to any civil actions, when in fact he was facing numerous civil judgments over unpaid debts. He also told the TWC that he was not facing any criminal charges when he had a pending felony charge for theft of services.
Chronicling his arrest in his journal, Davis wrote, “I was arrested on Dec. 20, last Friday night (a week ago) for a warrant that had been hanging around since April apparently. I didn’t know that I had one but it was for theft of services for a bad check I had written in June or July of 2012 to the Doubletree for $25,000, which makes the charge a felony … The more complicated and damaging aspect is that having a felony arrest doesn’t do well with trying to apply for a school certificate.”
Davis told the TVC that Retail Ready had been operating as a school for two years, when the company had only existed for a few months and had never trained any students. He also claimed that Retail Ready was fully prepared to train Veterans. However, the company lacked a building and basic supplies. He even lied to an independent accountant about the school’s financial condition and then submitted false financial statements to both the TWC and the TVC.
“I lied to the accountant that I am using for my audit service, I told him that I don’t have anything in the company name other than a lease and I left out having Jay being an employee and that I’ve had a bank account with expenses out of it because it is a disaster and wouldn’t project a very good picture,” Davis wrote in his journal.
VA eventually accepted Retail Ready’s application, allowing Davis to charge Veterans’ tuition and fees to the VA under the GI Bill.
In 2014, he began recruiting student Veterans, promising to prepare them for lucrative careers in the heating and air conditioning industry. When they entered the workforce, many of the Veterans discovered that Retail Ready had failed to teach them many of the basic skills necessary for entry-level technician jobs.
Several Veterans testified at trial that they had relied on the Retail Ready’s fraudulently obtained VA endorsement and were disappointed about their career prospects and pay. They were also shocked to learn of the rate at which Retail Ready’s six-week course had drained their GI Bill benefits, testifying that they felt “used,” “taken advantage of,” “deceived,” and “bamboozled.”
Even as his Veteran graduates struggled to make ends meet, Retail Ready collected more than $72 million in GI Bill benefits from the VA. Using the proceeds of the fraud, Davis purchased a $2.2 million home in Dallas, a $428,000 Lamborghini, a $280,000 Ferrari and a $260,000 Bentley, among other things.
He now faces up to 180 years in federal prison. His sentencing hearing has been set for Sept. 15.
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