North Greenville University has agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act of submitting false claims to the U.S. Department of Education in violation of the federal ban on incentive-based compensation, the United States Department of Justice announced Feb. 11.

According to a Justice Department news release, the settlement resolves allegations that between 2014 and 2016, NGU hired Joined Inc., a company partially owned by NGU, to recruit students to NGU and compensated Joined based on the number of students who enrolled in NGU’s programs, in violation of the prohibition on incentive compensation.

The claims resolved by the settlement are “allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability,” the Justice Department news release stated.

“NGU and its current legal team have cooperated fully with the authorities in this investigation, which stemmed from operational decisions that occurred in 2014,” said NGU president Gene C. Fant Jr. in a statement posted Feb. 13 at the NGU website.

Fant, who became the school’s president in June 2017, said, “Since 2015, the university has had no involvement with Joined, so these issues have not applied to the university’s operations since that time.”

“We are glad that the issues have been resolved, and we look forward to focusing on the many wonderful opportunities that continue to loom large in our immediate future as we continue our longstanding history of equipping transformational leaders for church and society.”