Thank You
This site documents institutional failure at length, because that is what the record shows. Fairness requires documenting the opposite with the same care. When a fabricated student surfaced in a real person's name, some people and organizations simply did their jobs — promptly, politely, and well. This page names them.
Aidvantage (Maximus) — for excellence and prompt service
The loan servicer had the least public accountability of any party in this case and behaved the best. Presented with the FTC Identity Theft Report and police reports, Aidvantage accepted the identity-theft claim, followed a defined process, and removed the fraudulent tradeline from the victim's credit reports with comparatively little friction. There was a procedure; it was followed; it worked. In a case defined by processes that did not exist, a process that simply functioned deserves to be recorded, and thanked.
Susan Ant, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, Normandale
The institutional criticism on this site is structural and legal. None of it is directed at Susan Ant. When the victim reached her, she responded courteously, apologized, and coordinated the identity-verification path (the live video appointment with government-ID review) that let a real person prove he was real. Her own words, from the produced record:
"I'm sorry that this has happened to you."Susan Ant, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, Normandale — email, May 12, 2026 (in production)
"Again, I am sorry that this has happened to you and hope we can work together to resolve this as much as possible."Susan Ant, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships, Normandale — email, May 12, 2026 (in production)
Across the entire produced record, these are the only two apologies. Both are hers. Thank you.
The Bloomington, Minnesota Police Department
Identity-theft victims are routinely told that police reports are a formality: paperwork generated so other paperwork can exist. That was not the experience here. The Bloomington Police Department was helpful, interested, and polite; officers treated a report of a federal loan opened in a stolen name as what it is, a crime with a victim, and treated the person reporting it like a person. In keeping with this site's policies, report numbers are not published. The professionalism is.
The records staff — to the bureaucrats who silently did their jobs
The July 2026 records production did not assemble itself. Somewhere in the system, staff located, compiled, and released hundreds of pages of records — including the internal emails quoted throughout this site. They did this without commentary, without delay games, and without being anyone's headline. Records staff only ever appear in stories like this one when something goes wrong. So, for the ones who did it right: your work goes noticed. The records they produced are described, with dates, in the documents section of the case timeline.
Gratitude does not offset the documented failures, and the failures do not erase the people who helped. A case record worth trusting holds both at once. If you are named here and would like anything corrected — including being thanked less publicly — see corrections.
For the rest of the record, start with why this site exists or the case timeline. If this is happening to you, go straight to What To Do.