Washington — Some college financial-aid administrators found a measure of dark satisfaction last summer, when MyRichUncle, which specialized in direct-to-consumer student loans, announced that it could no longer afford to offer government-backed loans.

Their happiness may be even greater today.

MyRichUncle, which grew its business by attacking the lending practices common at American colleges and banks, announced today it had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. “As a result, the company has suspended all business operations,” MRU Holdings Inc., as the lender is formally known, said in a statement.

MyRichUncle made enemies by running newspaper ads that caustically ridiculed the financial ties between colleges and student-loan companies, and by encouraging legal investigations into the matter led by New York’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo. The company’s demise, however, may be a casualty of the process it helped fuel, as a series of student lenders have been hurt both by the general downturn in the economy and by the tougher financial conditions imposed on their business by lawmakers angry at the collusion highlighted by MyRichUncle. —Paul Basken