Apollo Group to pay $280 million

PHOENIX -- Apollo Group Inc., the for-profit company that owns the University of Phoenix, fraudulently misled investors in 2004 about its student recruitment policies, a federal jury decided Wednesday. The panel ordered the company to pay shareholders about $280 million. The verdict, in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, specified the company pay certain investors $5.55 a share. The Policeman's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago was the lead plaintiff in the case.