Lawsuit Charges US Aviation School with Fraud

The defunct American School of Aviation in Atwater, Calif., is now facing a rash of complaints and lawsuits since it closed down in the last week of June, leaving more than 100 students — most of them from India — empty-handed after each of them prepaid more than $40,000 in tuition.
“We might have to go through bankruptcy,” Reny Kozman, who owns the school with her husband, Manpreet “Prince” Singh, told India-West in an e-mail July 2.
“We are working on refunds, and all the airplanes are listed for sale,” she said, without specifying the number of airplanes owned by the school. The total amount of their liability is undetermined.
The school’s Web site, www.iflyasa.com which had been recruiting students as recently as last weekend, is now offline.
Kozman claims that two ASA colleagues in Gurgaon, India, stole ASA’s money, leading to the school’s closure. “We are accusing Lalitha Krishnamurthy and Arvinder Singh of ASA Gurgaon of stealing over $300,000,” she told India-West.
The small flight school in central California is being sued by a flight supplier for not paying fuel bills, and the school’s failure to pay its water and electricity bill led to the eviction June 27 of around 100 students from housing on the former Castle Air Force Base.
Many of the students are under 25 and have told India-West that their parents in India had mortgaged their homes to afford the ASA’s tuition.
ASA has also been cited for at least eight violations by the Federal Aviation Administration and is accused of a state code violation for insufficient insurance.
Jeffrey Poindexter, an attorney in Chula Vista, Calif., calls the school’s accounting practices a “ponzi scheme” in court documents obtained by India-West. Poindexter is representing several students, including Hetal Patel, who attended ASA last October.
In her complaint, filed in Superior Court in Merced June 16, Patel alleges breach of contract and demands a refund of $23,292.
Another suit, filed by Poindexter on behalf of 10 Indian students, alleges fraud and demands $200,000 in damages. In this suit, the students said that after prepaying approximately $40,000 in tuition, they were instructed to log on to ASA’s Web site to keep track of how much of their money had been deducted for each session of training.
Meanwhile, two other aviation schools run by Indian Americans, after hearing of the students’ plight, have announced that they are willing to accept former ASA students and offer them every possible discount and housing assistance.
Flying Vikings School in Hayward, Calif., has taken on about 20 students, said Joe Correa, one owner of the school, who is originally from Goa, India.
Hiren Jetha, owner of the MVP Aero Academy in Houston, Texas, and Hollywood Aviators in Van Nuys, Calif., who read about the students in India-West, has also come forward to offer assistance.
11/07/08 Lisa Tsering/San Leandro India West, CA, USA