For Corinthian Colleges Inc., more than four dozen letters that arrived in federal lawmakers’ offices last month offered critical support: They came from business people who said they had hired graduates of the company’s schools, finding them ready for the workplace.

The letter writers warned the lawmakers about proposed federal regulations that are opposed by Santa Ana-based Corinthian and the rest of the career college industry.

The rules would deny taxpayer-financed student aid to campuses where too many students default on their school debt.

But at least nine of those letters were actually written by Corinthian employees, according to a review by the Register.

Only one of the 52 letters included the name of a business.

The rest were signed by people who included no business title and only an address, many of which were those of homes or apartments.

“As a business person, I have had firsthand experience with Corinthian Colleges Inc. and the graduates of one of its schools,” began the letters, which contained virtually identical language. They asked the U.S. Department of Education to abolish what are known as the “gainful employment” rules.

The Obama administration proposed the rules after lawsuits and investigations uncovered evidence that some for-profit career colleges had aggressively recruited people into high-priced courses that left them deeply in debt and with few options for jobs with salaries high enough to repay the loans.

The letters were sent in the midst of a lobbying battle in Washington that has pitted the industry against student advocates, who say the rules don’t go far enough.

Kent Jenkins, a spokesman for Corinthian, said the employees simply had made a mistake and had not tried to disguise who they were.

The company created a website to make it easy for employees, students, alumni and others to send letters to the DOE opposing the rules, Jenkins said.

The employees who signed letters that were said to come from outside business executives had simply clicked on the wrong item on a drop-down menu and sent the wrong pre-written letter.

“It was merely an accident,” Jenkins said, “and we will correct the record immediately.”

He noted that the employees had used their real names and that some had given their corporate address – a sign that they weren’t trying to mislead anyone, he said.

Besides the DOE, the letters were also sent to members of Congress representing the writers’ districts.

“This goes to show the lengths that some of the for-profit colleges will go to protect their bottom line,” said Congressman Mark Takano about the letters in an interview Monday.

Takano, a Riverside Democrat who is a former teacher and community college trustee, said the rules are needed to stop companies from taking advantage of students and to safeguard tens of billions of dollars in federal grants and loans.

“This is taxpayer money,” he said.

Corinthian is one of the nation’s largest career college companies, enrolling about 75,000 students at dozens of campuses that operate under the brand names of Everest College, Heald College and WyoTech.

The nine employees who signed the letters work at either the company’s headquarters in Santa Ana or at several campuses in Florida, including Everest University Online, according to the Register’s review.

Some letters were signed by outside business executives.

Caren Myers, the general manager of Fresno’s Lexus dealership, said she signed one to support Corinthian’s local campus.

She said that as a current board member of Fresno’s Chamber of Commerce, she was often asked to write letters supporting local businesses.

“I think we may have hired a receptionist from them at one time,” Myers said when asked if the dealership had hired Corinthian graduates.

While 13 percent of the nation’s college students attend for-profit schools, these students now account for 46 percent of loan defaults, according to an analysis of federal data by the Institute for College Access and Success.

Last fall, California Attorney General Kamala Harris accused Corinthian of using false advertising and predatory tactics to lure potential students.

The company says it is vigorously defending itself against the California lawsuit, as well as a similar case brought against it by the Massachusetts attorney general in April.

Corinthian’s practices are also being investigated by the attorneys general in at least 16 other states.

Jenkins said that almost 3,500 Corinthian employees had voluntarily gone to the website to send letters opposing the rules.

Those pre-written letters, many sent by employees living in Orange County, say the proposed rules are “highly flawed” and would harm minorities and veterans “who are most in need of higher education opportunities.”

In total, more than 7,400 people associated with Corinthian sent letters though the website, Jenkins said.

Michael Harrington, a Corinthian admissions representative from Northern California, independently complained to the DOE that employees were being harassed by their superiors to submit the letters.

Harrington has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming executives violated labor laws by failing to pay for all hours worked.

In his report to the DOE, Harrington included an internal email that he said a Corinthian executive had sent to an employee on April 17 as a reminder to send a comment from the website.

“Can you please let me know if you have submitted your letter or if you need help I can help you,” the executive wrote.

Another email was sent the next week directing an employee to the same website.

“Please make sure you do this,” the executive wrote.

Jenkins said that Harrington’s allegations were “totally false” and that the company made it clear “that everyone has a right to his or her own opinion regarding this issue or any other.”

He said that “while thousands of company’s staff and students filed comments opposing the regulation, thousands of others did not” – providing “clear, simple proof that Corinthian exerted no pressure on anyone.”

Contact the writer: mpetersen@ocregister.com