FBI Can’t Tell Difference Between Penn and Penn State

Regarding alleged "Silk Road" founder.

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Today, Nick Vadala reports on alleged “Silk Road” founder Ross Ulbricht, who was arrested in San Francisco this week for running the “anarcho-capitalist version of Amazon.com” that is Silk Road. Ulbright got a Master’s in material science in 2010, from Penn State. Which, as the F.B.I. does not know, is not the same thing as the University of Pennsylvania.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI, Ross Ulbricht — alleged founder of online contraband marketplace Silk Road, who was arrested yesterday in San Francisco — attended “graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.” However, many credible news sources — including Forbes magazine and The Baltimore Sun — have reported that Ulbricht, known online as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” in fact received a master’s degree in materials science from Penn State in 2010.

If there’s anything you don’t want to do to a Penn State grad–especially one accused of ordering murders-for-hire–is confuse his school with any of the other many less happy valleys in the collegiate world. [DP]