Hawaii Litigation Update: UH, EU and CU

On May 13, 2003 the First Circuit Court of the State of Hawaii entered default judgment against the University of Honolulu, Eden University and Culture University ( all Hawaii corporations).

Under the terms of the judgment, all three universities are enjoined from operating any degree granting institution in, from or under the color of Hawaii law. The judgment also directs the state's Business Registration Division to terminate their corporate existences. Each corporation was also ordered to offer full restitution to any students or graduates who enrolled after July 1, 1999.

Note: all three institutions are under the control of Chinese national Jizheng Wang. Mr. Wang agreed to voluntarily dissolve the corporations and indicated that none of the three schools had enrolled any students or collected any tuition.

Note: the University of Honolulu in this case is not related to either the University of Honolulu USA or Honolulu University of the Arts, Aciences and Humanities.

Anyone wishing to see unfiled electronic versions of the default judgment may email requests to [email protected]

Jeffrey E. Brunton
Staff Attorney
Office of Consumer Protection
State of Hawaii

 

Jeffrey

You successfully ding all these schools. Wouldn't requiring $ 100,000 bond for degree granting schools make it worthwhile. Lots of penalties handed out, but what portion is ever collected?

You must have the personal all-time record for closing schools that obviously must have a great need to be closed.

 

In my experience, passing a law requiring these businesses to post a 100,000 bond prior to operations would simply mean that I would be adding an additional count in the lawsuits for failure to comply with the bond requirement. Without the risk of criminal penalties, these types of institutions will view the risk of civil penalties as a cost of doing business. And you are correct, most penalties are never collected as the businesses have no assets within the state.