Really suspiciously light on details. This sounds like a judge issued a bench warrant and he ignored it (didn't go to court on the date he was supposed to go t

Really suspiciously light on details. This sounds like a judge issued a bench warrant and he ignored it (didn't go to court on the date he was supposed to go to court). A bench warrant us essentially an order to appear before a court under pain of arrest. If you ignore it, the law enforcement agency with the appropriate jurisdiction (in this case, U.S Marshals) will go "encourage" you to show up. A student loan debt may be the initial reason for the bench warrant (somebody may have tried to collect and the court issued a summons to get him to show up at court and explain why he isn't paying) --- but all he had to do to avoid the problem was to show up... not necessarily pay.