Fired by her school board, a Montrealer went on to run 3 colleges. International students are paying the price

There was the photo op with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in India, a trip to China with her children and a sprawling lakefront home in the Laurentians.

Business was going well.

By 2020, Caroline Mastantuono and members of her family owned a fast-expanding recruiting firm, Rising Phoenix International, and three private colleges that attracted hundreds of foreign students, mostly from India, who paid up to $30,000 to attend. 

But in January 2022, Rising Phoenix and the three colleges — M College in Montreal, CCSQ College in Longueuil and CDE College in Sherbrooke — shut down and filed for creditor protection. 

Today, the colleges owe students millions of dollars in tuition refunds; the recruiting firm is the target of multiple lawsuits, and Caroline Mastantuono and her daughter Christina await trial on fraud charges connected to their time at Quebec's Lester B. Pearson School Board.

The colleges now have a buyer in place, which could allow many students to return to classes, but for hundreds of others seeking refunds, the outcome remains uncertain.

How did it get to this point? 

Prior to starting Rising Phoenix, Caroline Mastantuono, 59,  worked at the Lester B. Pearson School Board for 27 years, until being fired in 2016 under a cloud of controversy.

The English-language school board serves western Montreal and its off-island suburbs.

In 2004, Mastantuono became director of the board's small international student department, where two of her children, Christina and Joseph, eventually joined her. 

In 2011, the Pearson board forged a partnership with a Toronto-based consulting firm called Edu Edge Inc., headed by Naveen Kolan, aimed at attracting more foreign students. 

It was an immediate success. In 2010-11, the Pearson board's international student program had just seven students. By 2015-16, there were 777, paying what amounted to millions of dollars in tuition for the cash-strapped English-language school board.

Suanne Stein Day, who chaired the board during that period, described Mastantuono as someone who knew how to turn on the charm and had a knack for befriending people in influential positions. She said Mastantuono scheduled breakfast meetings, threw her birthday parties and invited her to her son Joseph's wedding.

"She had me completely and totally fooled," said Stein Day.