Missing paperwork reportedly may ultimately erase $5 billion dollars of debt for loans that tens of thousands of former students took out over a decade ago.

National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts — a 15-trust company that purchases private student loan debt — reportedly lost the paperwork documenting these loans’ chains of ownership, according to cases brought forward in Pennsylvania and Delaware, the New York Times reported.

The shoddy record-keeping means that if the trust tries to come after students who default on them, they may see the entire debt written off. Judges have dismissed dozens of lawsuits against borrowers who defaulted on student loans from private creditors, the Times reported.

“A review of court records by The New York Times shows that many other collection cases are deeply flawed, with incomplete ownership records and mass-produced documentation,” thew newspaper said.

The trust bought the loans from the banks which granted them