CHICAGO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Suburban Express, a bus company running in Champaign, the Midwestern U.S. state of Illinois, abruptly shut down after it was accused of discriminating against Asian customers by the Illinois attorney general, local media reported.
Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday owner Dennis Toeppen announced his intention to cease all operations and take down all websites for Suburban Express and his associated businesses in a Tuesday federal court filing.
Toeppen could not be reached for comments. The company's website led to a dead page on Wednesday.
Toeppen reached a consent decree last month with the attorney general. Then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office sued Suburban Express last year after the company said in an email ad "Passengers like you. You won't feel like you're in China when you're on our buses."
The comment was referring to the sizable population of Chinese students at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Suburban Express provides bus services to students at six universities in the U.S. Midwest, primarily to and from the Chicago area.
Criticism ballooned when the company then followed with a statement titled "Apology," saying the original email ad was referring to a competitor that Toeppen claimed mostly served Chinese students.
The decree called for the company to make pay customer refunds, implement anti-discrimination training for employees and be monitored by the attorney general's office for three years. Current Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has accused Toeppen of violating the decree.
According to Toeppen's filing, Suburban Express will wind down its accounting over the next four to eight weeks and then be dissolved, "hopefully no later than July 31," Toeppen wrote.
