My boyfriend is an Apple Genius and instruction from Corporate is no, there is zero way to remove it if they lack the credentials for the iCloud account. Anyone saying they got it removed is confused about what happened. The manager might have found a way to get past the block in the service system and swapped the phone to one that wasn't locked. But due to a myriad of legal issues Apple didn't include systems to look up the account from any device info nor ways to remove the locks. Which is why they included the blocks to prevent swaps, recycling etc without turning off the activation lock by the owner first.
And given that there is little that really proves you own something I doubt apple would remove the swap lock in the service system either. Receipts just show you paid for it. Not that you didn't give it as a gift, resell it etc.
My guess is that the poster was merely assisted in figuring out which of his scad of emails was an Apple ID and resetting the passwords so he could try them all until he unlocked it himself