On March 3, 2022, Judge Sturgeon of the San Diego Superior Court issued a decision that Zovio, a for-profit education services company, violated state consumer protection by deceiving students on topics critical to student decision-making. (https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-ashford-university-must-pay-22-million-penalties) The matter was brought by the California Attorney General’s office on behalf of the State of California. Hemming Morse was engaged by the Attorney General’s office to identify, measure and analyze statements made by Zovio representatives to prospective students.

Greg Regan provided expert testimony during the State of California’s case. The Court’s opinion referenced his testimony, stating “The People’s expert Greg Regan, a forensic accountant, conducted an analysis of Defendants’ own scorecard data to determine the frequency and type of non-compliant statements in their admissions calls. Mr. Regan’s de-duplication efforts, consolidation of Defendant’s Excel and SQL scorecards, and tabulations of the rates and numbers of non-compliant scorecards, were adequately explained and the Court gives Mr. Regan’s analysis weight. At a high level, Mr. Regan’s analysis revealed that admissions counselors made non-compliant statements in 20.5% of scorecards discussing a topic relevant to this case, for a total of 749,981 non-compliant calls nationwide.”