Former students sue Ontario company for $108K in tuition for unapproved web developer program

Ruoxiang Xiong borrowed $10,000 from his mom for a web developer training program run by a Markham, Ont., company that was supposed to include an internship. 

That was the main selling point for Xiong, who was hoping the internship organized by Mark2Win would help him secure a job in the industry.

"They made up very fantastic stories about how the students before they found them, they were upset — and after that they found a job, and they live a better life," he said.

But in reality, Xiong says he learned more teaching himself with YouTube videos than he did from the two-month virtual course in 2022. And he and other former students told CBC Toronto the promised internship turned out to be a group project with other students.

Mark2Win is run by Jinwei (Mark) Xu. In an emailed statement, Xu described his program as "cutting edge" and said the model of internship was specified in the company's service agreements.

"He didn't really care about our development," Xiong said. "It's not worth it at all for $10,000."

Xiong is one of 10 former students who are suing Xu and his company for a collective $108,000 in tuition they paid to what turned out to be a business providing unapproved vocational programs. The lawsuits have yet to be tested in court.

Ontario's superintendent of career colleges ordered Xu and his company — which it said also operates under the names ITLabPro and MetaDataPlus — to stop advertising and offering unapproved vocational programs in early July. 

But by the end of the month, Xu had not complied with the restraining order and the province began issuing daily fines to the company, according to a government notice.

More than two months later, the business still hasn't complied, according to the career college compliance and enforcement website. 

As of Monday, Xu's company was still being fined $2,000 a day on top of the $40,000 penalty the superintendent of career colleges ordered on July 29.

Xu is also personally being fined $2,000 daily since July 29, which means Xu and his company are likely facing about $198,000 in combined fines as of Monday.

Xu told CBC Toronto he believes his program is exempt from the Ontario Career Colleges Act and so the regulations don't apply to it. 

He said he "immediately addressed" the government action in July and asked the government to stop accumulating penalties as he applied for a review, but Xu said the superintendent of career colleges refused.