I’m also a layman - I didn’t finish training to become a private pilot.
Thinking about this, it IS possible that he held a commercial certificate and it got revoked because his DPE was caught doing something shady and the FAA invalidated all certa issued by the DPE, pending a new checkride. It’s happened before.
I’m not sure how it would show up in the website though.
Well, he could also not be flying anymore so never retook his checkride.
All that’s to say, it may be a possibility. I’m unable to offer insight on the likelihood of it being fact.