Suit charges Bridgepoint cooked books

A former executive charged in federal court February 9 that Bridgepoint Education, the troubled for-profit, mainly online college, fired him when he pointed out that the company falsified its financial reports by inaccurately projecting the student retention rate.

A senior vice president of student services and operations for Ashford University, the company's major operation, says he told the company early last year that the enrollment figures were erroneous and the financial report overly rosy. At a meeting, his boss said he had made a "career-limiting move" and was then fired. He then sued under the protection of whistleblowers afforded by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The company earlier reported that its internal controls are weak. According to Bridgepoint's most recent quarterly report, the company is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, and the attorneys general of California, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina.