In 2014, just five out of 4000 students who had been signed up for the Empower Institute graduated. "Petalinda", Jin Yang's record-setting home in Glenhaven. Credit:Domain Those five students cost taxpayers up to $46 million, according to The Australian. While business boomed, Mr Yang purchased "Petalinda," a $9 million home in Sydney's Hills district complete with a 14-person sauna, championship-size tennis court, fingerprint scanning technology and a 23-metre indoor pool. Within the next year, the college would enrol 10,000 students out of the third level of an office-block next to Blockbuster video in Blacktown.

When Fairfax Media contacted the college on Wednesday, a staff member said they had one student due to come in that day. Advertising for the Empower Institute. In 2014, just five out of 4000 students who had been signed up for the Empower Institute graduated. Credit:Empower institute Despite the low participation rates, agents have continued to target some of the state's poorest areas, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, who launched legal action against the college on Wednesday, The ACCC alleges that agents acting on behalf of the college approached customers in Centrelink offices with the promise of free laptops and $50 cash. Jin Yang's $9 million home features a 23-metre indoor pool. Credit:Domain

Customers were unaware that the forms they were signing would put them up to $15,000 in VET-FEE help taxpayer-funded debt, according to the ACCC. In one case cited by the consumer watchdog, a man in Emerton in Sydney's western suburbs had his signature allegedly forged after he told the recruiter his father had died that day. Despite the man's situation, the agent allegedly continued marketing the course and filled out forms on the man's behalf, signing up him up for two courses and for thousands of dollars in Commonwealth debt without his knowledge. In another instance, an Aboriginal man who had left school in year 7 with limited reading and writing abilities was allegedly signed up for one of Empower's online business courses, despite having never used the internet. The agents and brokers contracted on behalf of Empower Institute were paid up to $3700 per student they recruited, the ACCC will allege.

The Chairman of the ACCC, Rod Sims, said that the ACCC will allege that Empower Institute had knowledge of the actions of its door-to-door salespeople. "At the highest level we are alleging that Empower had more interest in gaining access to the Commonwealth funding than it did in actually educating people," he said. The college is the latest in a string of colleges to be pursued by the ACCC, as the sector plunges into a crisis with $1.6 billion in Commonwealth debt and counting. It is the third to be taken to the Federal Court since October. Unique International College, the one-room campus with 800 students above Silly Willy's $2 shop in Granville is being pursued for $57 million in taxpayer funding.

Phoenix Institute in Melbourne is also being pursued for its "unconscionable conduct", and $106 million in funding. All up, between the three colleges being pursued by the ACCC, they have secured more than $253 million in government funding. That is $88 million more than the boost the nation's most prestigious scientific body, the CSIRO, will get next year after the federal government's innovation announcement on Monday. ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said that he hoped the ACCC will be able to launch action on one more college before Christmas. Empower Institute has been contacted for comment.