The Department of Education has forgiven more than $170 million of loans to students who attended the shuttered Corinthian Colleges, according to a report released yesterday (June 29). Marketwatch.com reports that the Department of Education approved more than 11,000 claims for student-loan discharge.

More than 26,000 former students have applied for debt relief, according to yesterday's report. Orange County-based Corinthian is one of the worst cases of for-profit schools fleecing students and the U.S. government. Most of the money for students came from federal education sources such as Pell grants. Then the government had to ante up a second time when the school closed.

The Department of Education in 2014 reached an agreement with Corinthian to shut down some campuses and sell others. In April of last year, the company said it would cease operations, and the next month it filed for bankruptcy. The California attorney general's office said the company targeted single parents close to the poverty level. Corinthian is being criminally investigated by federal officials.