When Silver State Helicopters, which operated flight schools in 17 states, closed its doors in February, hundreds of students who had paid thousands of dollars up front were left high and dry. Now, a California law firm representing two of those students has filed suit against KeyBank, which loaned them the money to give to Silver State. The school required students to pay the full $69,900 tuition before training started, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Wednesday, and it provided access to “preferred” private lenders, such as KeyBank. The law firm, Pinnacle Law Group in San Francisco, alleges that the bank and the flight school worked together to “ensnare” the students. Further, the bank “intentionally omitted” a federally required consumer protection clause from its loan documents, Pinnacle says.
“We hope to obtain an injunction preventing the bank from enforcing its promissory notes and from contacting credit agencies regarding the notes,” Pinnacle attorney Kevin Rooney told the Sacramento Business Journal.
