HSBC Watch News Release Forum Index
Forum Name: - Social Responsibility
Topic Title: UMUC Makes Millions
Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:05 pm
Out of curiosity I Googled UMUC for general information abut prorams and
policies. As a student and service member, some of what I read was
disconcerting. For example, I read about the deal between Household
International and UMUC, as reported by Timothy Blake, a retired US Marine and an investigator for householdwatch.com.
I don't begrudge any college raising money, but strongly feel they could
have chosen a better way than partnering with a "predatory lender" with
reported links to a money laundering bank of the ex-*beep* regime.
I can think of nothing more disgusting by University of Maryland
University college (UMUC) than to take advantage of the men and women who are in the military--many risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act is there to protect American soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and Marines from such profiteers during a limited time of
active duty. UMUC's $2 million dollar deal with predatory lender Household
International is simply an act of greedy profiteering.
The complaints against Household International by service members that
have been posted in the Internet indicate multiple failures in honoring
the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act. Multiple billings, exhorbitant
interest rates, mishandling of records which result in increased charges
to service members are sickening. UMUC's educational administration and
low quality in some overseas areas is no better. If you are called to
active duty, you’re protected by a law that can save you some legal
problems and allow you time to get your financial affairs in order during
the time relief is offered.
It is unconscionable that University of Maryland University college has a
$2 million partnership with Household Intenational, since last year, to
maintain an online financial education resource center designed to
encourage debt for military personnel and their families.
HSBC, the parent company of Household International is linked to a
blacklisted Iraqi bank owned by Saddam Hussein's former regime. UMUC's
Gerald Heeger and Nicholas Allen surely had knowledge of this activity and
yet continued the partnership with Household. UMUC's arrogant, greedy
profiteering off the American military should be grounds for their removal
as a beneficiary of Department of Defense contracts.
While Household was forming a deal with UMUC to "help the military with
financial matters and planning" they were allegedly perpetrating a fraud.
UMUC took the $2 million dollar partnership anyway, looked the other way, and shamefully profited off service members.
American service members face danger in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are
knifed in the back at home by the likes of Household and UMUC. Write your Representative and Senator encouraging them to arrange to remove UMUC from US military posts and bases. Whether one supports or opposes the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, this kind of profiteering is amoral and a burden to both service members and civilian taxpayers. The DoD needs to review to whom lucrative contracts are handed out.
As a service member we're trapped by what UMUC has to offer in its
classrooms and in distance education during overseas rotations, but the
double-standard of working for the DoD and getting money in this way is
over the top in terms of unethical behavior.
We monitor customer trends for possible violations of Regulation Z and other possible illegal actions.