David Jang’s Olivet University Ordered to Shut Down in California

A California judge has ordered Olivet University to be shut down for violating education regulations, dealing a major blow to the Christian sect that runs the college and its controversial leader David Jang.

The university and Jang followers are also at the center of a federal criminal investigation into money laundering, visa fraud and labor trafficking, the latest in a series of legal controversies that have plagued the sect for more than a decade.

Administrative Law Judge Debra D Nye-Perkins found against Olivet University on all 14 allegations made by California Attorney General Rob Bonta on behalf of the state education regulator, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE).

The complaint, filed after education inspectors searched Olivet campuses in 2022, accused the university of failing to keep students records, teaching poorly designed courses with improperly qualified faculty and breaking financial rules.

Judge Nye-Perkins said the Olivet demonstrated a “cavalier attitude” toward the regulations.

“….the only degree of discipline that would ensure public protection is the revocation of the respondent’s permission to operate,” she said in the proceedings posted on the website of the Board of Private Post-Secondary Education.

The judge gave Olivet University until January 10 to propose a plan to have its remaining students complete their courses.

California is by far Olivet’s most important state regulator: it is the only one in the United States to confer degree-granting authority on the college founded in 2000 by Jang, a Korean-American cleric whose organizations and disciples have faced a series of legal cases over the past decade. The rest of Olivet’s 10 campuses in seven states and the District of Columbia function as satellites of the university.

Olivet University is also at the center of a criminal investigation that became public in 2021 when agents of the Homeland Security Department searched the Anza campus looking for evidence of labor trafficking, money laundering and visa fraud.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in California’s Central District is investigating the case against Olivet University and any charges would need to be filed “soon” before the statute of limitations run out, a document filed in a civil suit against Olivet showed in April.

Newsweek is owned by two former members of the Olivet sect. Their departure from Jang’s church triggered a flurry of lawsuits, a few of which are still working their way through courts. Olivet did not respond to a request for comment on the decision before this article was published; any response will be added.

Newsweek has reported extensively on Olivet’s legal problems for the past six years, even while the magazine’s owners were members of the sect. More recently, Olivet has characterized that reporting as a weapon in disagreements between the company’s owners and the sect.

The Los Angeles Times published a story on September 20th echoing most of Newsweek’s reporting on Olivet, including of the mistreatment of students. The Times story included a previously...