Another shoe has dropped in the ongoing Filipino teacher scandal. In April, an administrative law judge found that the company which recruited Filipino teachers for Louisiana schools was guilty of breaking state labor law, and fined Universal Placement International $1.8 million.
Today the Louisiana Federation of Teachers announced a federal RICO lawsuit against UPI, its sister company, PARS, and the principals of those companies.
But it goes deeper than that. Also named in the suit, filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Covington and Burling LLP, are the East Baton Rouge School District and some of its administrators. It is charged that they actively participated in a scheme in which foreign teachers "were cheated out of tens of thousands of dollars and forced into exploitative contracts by an international trafficking ring run by labor contractors."
“For more than two years, we have been working toward this moment,” said Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan. “The practices described in this lawsuit are disgusting, unacceptable and, frankly, un-American."
It is amazing that the recruiting agency was able to do business at all in Louisiana. Its president, Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro, had served jail time in California for defrauding the state medical system, and was found guilty of fraud in New Jersey as well.
Watch for some disturbing and shocking revelations when testimony is heard in this case.
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