May 18, 2007

Suspended Education Department Official Had Approved Waiver for Former Employer

By PAUL BASKEN

Sallie Mae benefited from 2004 conflict-of-interest ruling

Matteo Fontana, the student-aid official in the U.S. Department of Education who was suspended last month in an ethics case, issued a controversial high-stakes legal ruling in 2004 that benefited his former employer, Sallie Mae, on the day before the nation's top student lender completed its transition from a government-founded lender into a for-profit corporation.

In his ruling, Mr. Fontana, who has been placed on

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