The for-profit education sector is a $23 billion industry with over 1,000 active businesses. Recently, for-profit universities and colleges have increasingly come under fire for their marketing tactics and admissions standards. The industry suffers from a shockingly high level of student loan defaults and student drop-outs.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Education has received over 8,000 requests for loan forgiveness due to fraud. A combination of average tuition of $35,000 annually combined with easy to access, government-backed student loans has led to this difficult situation.

Things had gotten so bad for the sector that, in early 2016, the Obama administration formed the Student Aid Enforcement Unit within the Department of Education. The Wall Street Journal reports that the unit will be given a broad mandate to investigate claims of "potential misconduct or high-risk activity" against a college or university.