The Chronicle: U. of Phoenix Got Confidential Files in Legal Case Through Education Department’s Error
A high-stakes whistle-blower case accusing the University of Phoenix of misusing billions of dollars in federal money has taken a bizarre twist. The U.S. Department of Education, which is ostensibly opposing Phoenix in the case, gave away the entire legal strategy of the whistle-blowers, including the identities of confidential witnesses.
Lawyers for the University of Phoenix and its parent company, the Apollo Group, obtained the information by filing a Freedom of Information Act request in 2004. The information, in a set of documents called a disclosure statement, outlines legal strategies and includes notes from interviews with witnesses, and department lawyers say they were not supposed to have been given out.
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