A UNC graduate student has pled not guilty to charges of identity fraud against his former academic adviser, according to wire reports.
Mark Conrad Rendina, a 33-year-old Durham resident and master's student in bioengineering, was placed on $100,000 bail Monday morning in Orange County District Court in Hillsborough. Rendina is accused of using the identity of Walker Anderson Long -- a former research professor at the UNC School of Medicine -- to open several credit card and cell phone accounts.
According to reports, Long worked for eight to nine months as an adviser for Rendina's master's thesis before dismissing the student because of personal issues. Rendina gained national attention in 2000 after creating several Web sites under the names of several political parties and candidates and steering visitors to pornographic sites.
Rendina is scheduled to appear at a probable cause hearing Thursday afternoon.
University
Sunday, May 19
