Donald Trump settles Trump University fraud lawsuits for $25million

President-elect Donald Trump has settled three Trump University lawsuits for $25million.

Students who took the course claimed they were lured into paying up to $35,000 to lea Trump’s real estate investing ‘secrets’ from his ‘hand-picked’ instructors.

However, Trump ended up facing three fraud lawsuits in Califoia and New York.

The settlement comes after Trump repeatedly said he would not settle the class-action lawsuits.

One of the trials had been due to begin in San Diego on November 28, but Trump’s lawyers had attempted – unsuccessfully – to delay it until after he was swo in as president in January.

New York Attoey General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement: ‘Today’s $25million settlement agreement is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.’

He denies fraud (Picture: Getty Images)

Trump admitted he did not ‘hand pick’ the instructors, saying that the marketing language used shouldn’t have been taken literally.

According to Schneiderman, the closest students ever came to meeting the businessman was having their photo taken next to a cardboard cutout of him.

News of the lawsuits dogged the Republican’s presidential campaign, and he came under fire at the time for suggesting that the presiding judge – Gonzalo Curiel – would not be impartial because of his Mexican heritage.

The university, which closed in 2010, was branded a ‘fraud from beginning to end’ by Schneiderman in July. He had also said it used ‘false promises to prey on desperate people’.

Speaking in June, Trump said: ‘I will win the Trump University case. I already am, as far as I’m conceed. I could settle that case. I could have settled that case, I just choose not to.’

As news of the settlement came out, Trump refused to admit any wrongdoing. It is believed he personally made about $5million – or £4million – from the ‘scheme’.