We don't know how good the translation is but I've read the article in German and there it clear that he studied in the US and presented a paper at a conference

We don't know how good the translation is but I've read the article in German and there it clear that he studied in the US and presented a paper at a conference: http://www.euce.org/eusa/2011/papers/9d_farneti.pdf http://www.euce.org/eusa/2011/papers/9d_farneti.pdf. I'd say it was not a communication problem. Also: How did they know about his musician alias and his concert dates? From the article it looks like they read his emails. He could also have posted the dates for all to see on Facebook.