Kansas authorities investigating Monticello University

Kansas City Star August 12, 1999: "So you want to get that college degree you've always thought about. Monticello University offers a bachelor's you can complete in 10 months for $4,000. Or how about a law degree? That would take 15 months and an extra grand or so. The university is located on the Internet at www.monticello.edu. But good luck finding its home office or the man who runs Monticello, Leslie Edwin Snell of Olathe. It's tough to pin down either, authorities have discovered. Kansas authorities were looking for Snell on Thursday to serve him with a lawsuit the state filed against him Wednesday in Johnson County District Court, said a spokeswoman with the attorney general's office. The lawsuit accuses Monticello, Snell and more than a dozen other Snell-related entities with violating the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. The civil lawsuit asks that Snell's companies be prohibited from doing business in Kansas and seeks damages on behalf of consumers. According to court and corporation documents, Snell, 50, and a few others, including some relatives, have set up a series of university and other companies with mailing addresses in a number of states. Last fall, the mailing address on Monticello's Web site was Overland Park. Last month, it was Sioux Falls, S.D. This month, a new address appeared: a post office box in the West Indies."