US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's ruling settles two class-action lawsuits and a civil lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Trump had vowed never to settle but said after the election that he didn't have time for a trial, even though he believed he would have prevailed. Under terms of the settlement, he admits no wrongdoing.
The lawsuits alleged that Trump University gave nationwide seminars that were like infomercials, constantly pressuring people to spend more and, in the end, failing to deliver.
Attorneys for former customers have said their clients will get at least 90 percent of their money back, based on the roughly 3,730 claims submitted.
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Trump brought more attention by repeatedly assailing Curiel, insinuating that the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage exposed a bias.
Sherri Simpson, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, attorney, said she and a partner paid $35,000 in 2010 to enroll in Trump University's "Gold Elite" program to be paired with a mentor who would teach them Trump's secret real estate investment strategies.
Simpson, who appeared in two anti-Trump campaign ads, said they got little for their money - the videos were 5 years old, the materials covered information that could be found free on the internet and her mentor didn't return calls or emails.
Another customer, Harold Doe, objected because he wanted more money.
In clearing those final hurdles, the president brought closure to the trio of lawsuits, the first of which was filed in April 2010.
When attorneys reached a deal shortly after Trump's election, Curiel said he hoped it would be part of "a healing process that this country very sorely needs." A month later, he granted preliminary approval of the deal.
Court documents unsealed last year revealed strategies for enticing people to enroll even if they couldn't afford it. The documents outlined how employees should guide people through "the roller coaster of emotions" after they express interest and tells employees to be "very aggressive during these conversations to in order to push them out of their comfort zones."
Trump has repeatedly claimed a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate on internal surveys. Plaintiffs countered that students were asked to rate the product when they believed they still had more instruction to come and were reluctant to openly criticize their teachers on surveys that were not anonymous.
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