In 2009, four former admission officers alleged that the Academy of Art had compensated them based on how many students they could enroll. The Department of Education bans such incentives, and during the Obama Administration a memo was issued to recoup funds from schools that used these illegal recruitment techniques. The Academy of Art requires no portfolio and has a 100% acceptance rate for admissions. With low recruiting thresholds, the school took in over $1.5 billion dollars in Federal aid to be repaid by students since 2006. The former employees eventually became whistleblowers in a Federal Case, suing the school in U.S. District Court in Oakland in 2009.