Anamarc College financial problems go back years

Anamarc College’s sudden closure last week stunned many students, but may have been no surprise to others.

Anamarc’s owners have until this Friday to come up with a plan to either find their students new schools or refund their money. ABC 7 has uncovered that learned the college’s problems with the Department of Education go back years.

Between the fiscal years ending in 2011 and 2012, Anamarc College went from a rating reflecting that they were “financially responsible” with the Department of Education to the level of being “considered financially responsible”, but requiring additional oversight, right on the cusp of not being financially responsible at all.

While Anamarc did receive about $4.5 million last year, for the first three quarters of this fiscal year,
Anamarc had students request just over three million, and actually received about $2.7 million. Anamarc’s status with the Department of Education was changed to a higher reporting requirement two weeks ago, which also delayed loan payments to the college.

So could criminal charges come from all of this? El Paso Congressman Beto O’rourke met with more than 100 students last week and recommended that they contact the FBI if they believed they’d seen Anamarc committing fraud.

Both the El Paso District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s office said they are not investigating Anamarc at this time, though the FBI hasn’t responded to our inquiries about an investigation.

In a statement, Rep. O’rourke said he asked students to contact the FBI because, “In the case of Anamarc, as in all cases where constituents feel like they have possibly witnessed criminal behavior, we referred them to the authorities.”

Many former Anamarc College students say they’re not sure what they can do next, and that they’re basically in limbo until Anamarc’s plan deadline on Friday. But any students who think they witnessed fraud at the college are encouraged to call the FBI at 915-832-5000.