Photo: Michael Kovac/2011 Michael Kovac

It turns out that Trump University is not, in fact, an illustrious business school, but a scam that defrauded at least 5,000 people who had hoped to learn investing skills from America’s most prominent birther (who was once better known for being good at making money). New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a $40 million lawsuit against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and other people involved in running the alleged racket, which Schneiderman says “engaged in deception at every stage of consumers’ advancement through costly programs and caused real financial harm.”

The lawsuit says Trump University attendees paid between $1,495 and $35,000 to attend courses and enroll in mentorship programs that left many “unable to land even one real estate deal” and “facing thousands of dollars in debt for the seminar program once billed as a top quality university with Trump’s ‘hand-picked’ instructors,” according to the AP. Some were led to believe that they would get to meet Trump (who wouldn’t want to?), though it seems that the closest they got to that was a photo taken in front of a life-size picture of their poorly chosen hero.

On Sunday, Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, denied the charges and claimed the lawsuit was politically motivated. “The attorney general has been angry because he felt that Mr. Trump and his various companies should have done much more for him in terms of fundraising,” Cohen explained. (Records show that Trump contributed $12,500 to Schneiderman’s 2010 campaign for attorney general.) A Schneiderman spokesman responded, “The fact that he’s still brave enough to follow the investigation wherever it may lead speaks to Mr. Schneiderman’s character.” And to the unavoidable sleaziness of Donald Trump.