PRINCESS ANNE Md.
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is on New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s list of 63 colleges that participated in what he says was a deceptive revenue-sharing scheme with a student-loan marketing firm.
Cuomo says Florida-based Student Financial Services paid universities and athletic departments for the right to use college mascots and trademarks in marketing federal-loan consolidations to students. Campuses typically also received payments of $75 to $100 for each loan application processed.
Cuomo says it’s deceptive because a private company is masquerading as the school.
Under a settlement announced Tuesday, Student Financial Services denies breaking any law.
Top administrators at UMES, a historically Black university, say they were unaware of the contract. They say it was signed by a midlevel administrator in the athletics department. The school says it received no money before the contract was terminated.
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