Trump University spelled hope in 2008 for George Hanus of Fremont, Calif., whose startup information technology business was crumbling under the weight of the sinking economy.

In his late 40s, Hanus felt adrift and needed a plan. That's when he heard a radio ad announcing that experts handpicked by Donald Trump were coming to Oakland to teach the billionaire real estate magnate's best trade secrets.

"I was very excited," said Hanus, 56, recalling the visions of prosperity that danced through his head. He'd been dazzled by Trump's speech a year earlier at Moscone Center in San Francisco, and now there was a chance to emulate the master. "I wanted to learn more."

But instead of making money in real estate, Hanus said, he drained his retirement savings of $13,000 at the urging of Trump University representatives and took a tax hit of nearly $5,000. What's more, he said, the mentors who were supposed to guide students through the early stages of their new career wouldn't return his calls.

"I expected to make enough to pay back my IRA and to make a better living," Hanus recalled. "But I made zero. I felt deceived and rotten about the whole thing. My girlfriend still wants to kill me."

Hanus isn't alone. Felicisimo Limon, 76, of El Sobrante, Calif., a retired postal worker, longshoreman and Navy man, said he lost $35,000 to Trump University. Joann Noren, 77, of San Rafael, Calif., said she lost $3,000.

Fraud accusations

They are among 8,000 or so former students in three states who are suing Trump, now front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, in two class-action lawsuits originating in San Diego that call Trump University a fraudulent enterprise. Increasingly, the suits are becoming a factor in the race for president.

"If the Democratic Party hasn't recruited a group of disgruntled Trump University students to film a commercial, they should be sued for malpractice," said Republican Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

During the Feb. 25 Republican debate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio referred to Trump's "fake university." Texas Sen. Ted Cruz picked up the theme and said that if Trump wins the party's nomination in July, voters should consider that the Republican candidate for president could be "in court being cross-examined about whether he committed fraud."

Trump shot back: "It's a case that is nonsense." He said he easily could settle out of court but doesn't want to "out of principle."

In fact, there are three cases.

Makaeff v. Trump, filed in 2010, alleges that Trump University duped Californians with "empty promises" of a real estate education taught by quality instructors - but was in reality an "infomercial" aimed at getting people to spend more money. The suit claims breach of contract, false advertising and violation of California's Unfair Competition Law.

The second suit, Cohen v. Trump - which includes the Makaeff plaintiffs and others who bought Trump programs in New York and Florida - makes similar allegations but claims the education venture also violated the federal anti-racketeering law known as RICO. It was filed in 2013.

A third, similar lawsuit filed also in 2013 by the attorney general of New York seeks $40 million.

Trump University changed its name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in 2010, the year it ceased operations. Five years before, the state of New York notified Trump that calling itself a university violated state law because it had no charter to operate as one.

Trump's lawyers deny all of the allegations in court papers that offer no explanations beyond a curt "denied."

Inquiries to the Trump campaign were referred to spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who did not respond to emails.

Founded in 2005 by Trump and colleagues, the "university" was a limited liability company based in New York rather than an accredited school offering degrees and diplomas. Yet Trump, the company's chairman, suggested in a promotional video that Trump U. would offer a better business education than the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school from which he graduated.

"We're gonna teach you better than the business schools are going to teach you - and I went to the best business school," said Trump, appearing professorial in a book-lined study. "It's going to be a better education."

In the video, Trump promised "professors and adjunct professors that are absolutely terrific. Terrific people. Terrific brains. ... We're going to have the best of the best." He said the professors "are all people that are handpicked by me."

"I was really impressed with that," Hanus said.

Spending more money

But, according to Hanus and the lawsuit, most of the instructors turned out not to be professors. "They were high-pressure salespeople that knew the real estate lingo," Hanus said.

Nor was the first class actually a class, he said. Instead, in an Oakland hotel conference room, the audience was urged to buy a three-day workshop for about $1,500 and told they would learn how to buy a home and sell it quickly at a profit.

Hanus bit.

"By the middle of the second day, your head is spinning," he said. "And the whole time, you're thinking, oh my God, I can do this! You're feeling good about the process - and people get really excited."

So excited, he said, that several began claiming they'd already made money and said they were ready to sign up for a longer workshop, which cost about $11,000. Only later did Hanus wonder if they were employees planted to whip up interest.

He bit again. Hanus was interested in the field trip they would take to help students identify rundown properties ripe for flipping. And he was interested in learning techniques to show buyers how to reap fees and profits without involving a bank, and how to form limited liability companies. These were important, Hanus was told, "so if one of them has a problem and you end up getting sued, you can just close that company and start up another."

Especially tempting to many students was the promise that after employees packed up and left, a personal counselor would be available by phone to answer questions long afterward.

"The whole concept behind this is that we'll hold your hand until you make a couple of property purchases, and by then you'll be able to recoup your investment," said Hanus, who was counting on that part of the process to ensure that he could restore the $10,000 he'd withdrawn from his individual retirement account. He expected to do it quickly enough to avoid a tax consequence.

But Hanus, and fellow plaintiffs Limon and Noren, said no such counseling materialized. The lawsuits also claim that actual mentorship fell far short of promises, which in the case of those who had spent $35,000 was to be unlimited mentoring for a year.

"When I contacted them, it was disconnected. No longer in service," said Limon, who spent $35,000, took out a second mortgage on his house, and had trouble paying the bills. Like the others, he said he hadn't learned enough from the workshops to venture into business on his own. "I thought I was going to excel economically because of him. Instead, I nearly lost my house."

Noren said she called her counselor and was told, "Oh, they're no longer with Trump." And when she left messages for other people, "they wouldn't follow up."

"I was so stupid that I signed up," Noren said. "I feel really like it was a scam."

'Fair game'

Hanus, who since has resurrected his IT business, said he was stunned when Trump surged ahead in the polls.

"My first thought was, he's gonna play this country like he played me," Hanus said, noting that he's often heard Trump say most former students filled out surveys saying they liked the program.

"What he did not say, however, was that the survey is done prior to leaving that final day," Hanus said. "Of course people are going to give it good ratings. Their head is still swimming with dreams of going out to make a good living in real estate. Yet after the class, you learn that your 'counselor' only took three calls, and those were generic with no viable assistance. Once I realized I was hung out to dry during hard economic times and gave the last of my savings, I would have answered those questions with much different answers."

Harmeet Dhillon, vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, said Trump garners such loyalty from supporters that the suits are unlikely to frighten them.

Yet as the lawsuits receive more attention, they "will cause people who are not necessarily on the Trump bandwagon to reconsider," said Dhillon, who is still officially neutral in the presidential campaign.

And since Trump is "running on his business history," she said, "this is fair game."