They are speculating, but there is no telling if it ever even happened. I tend to believe the site's news was just more interesting than what OOP posted.
That's Paul Graham's account, so maybe not just speculation. I didn't realize he still read this site. Not to jump on to OPs paranoia but I kind of thought he was frequenting some secret meta-HN site that still talks about entrepreneurship. Paul, if you see this, let me in! I swear I won't complain about capitalism!
Makes me wonder if anyone has ever made up a sovereign citizen-style conspiracy theory except the person is a government agency. Like the man somehow just assigns a real person to be one rather than be employed by one, represent one, etc. There's some complicated legal reason for this and, of course, it gives you some sort of superpowers and/or freedom from consequence. Seagal-style movie trailer practically writes itself: Thomas Ptacek IS NSA.