Defamatory websites network sells hit pieces across the UK and Ukraine

Investigations published this year describe a network of defamatory websites that take money to publish negative stories about businesspeople. Some also charge to remove them. The sites present themselves as local news outlets or anti-corruption portals. They have been traced to operators in the UK and Ukraine, with ownership routed through offshore companies.

Fake local news in Britain

In the UK, a group of sites operating as local news brands was linked to 2Trom Media Group, the company behind the London Post, Essex TV, Manchester TV and The Daily Brit. The sites mostly publish recycled press releases under generic bylines. Mixed in are long attack pieces on wealthy figures from the former Soviet states and promotions for unregulated crypto casinos. None of the company's registered addresses led to an office. Its listed owner, Viktor Tokarev, could not be traced.

Uzbek financier Ovik Mkrtchyan sued the London Post and Tokarev at the High Court and was awarded more than £220,000 in damages and costs after the defendants did not appear. The article stayed online for weeks after the judgment.

The operator of another site, Leeds TV, confirmed by email that it accepts payment to publish articles. He named Kazakh clients, Ukrainian oligarchs and crypto gambling operators among its customers.

Anti-corruption sites in Ukraine

In Ukraine, attention has centred on Antikor, which calls itself a national anti-corruption portal. One businessman documented more than 100 articles about himself. On a single day, the same story appeared on 17 websites with identical formatting. A Kyiv law firm said a court had found Antikor's money-laundering allegations against a Ukrainian bank to be false.

An undercover journalist who asked to have an article removed was offered a $12,000 annual package in cryptocurrency. It covered deletion, protection from new articles and two positive ones. Placing a negative story was said to cost $150 to $200. The Antikor trademark is held by a Panama foundation. Ukrainian law enforcement has named Kostyantyn Chernenko, a former parliamentary assistant who left Ukraine in 2021, as the alleged organiser. Antikor denies charging to publish or delete content.

Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications blocked antikor.com.ua and antikor.info in May 2025, followed by rozsliduvach.info and hab.media.

Shared infrastructure

Court filings in a US defamation case showed near-identical IP addresses across Antikor, Kompromat1, Ruskompromat and Antimafia sites. The same domains later ran 158 articles about one company executive across 109 sites, 95 of them hosted on a single server in Reading, England. A separate technical review of more than 60 domains found shared SSL certificates and hosting fingerprints.

London law firm Schillings now tracks more than 350 junk news sites. It recorded a 355% increase between 2023 and 2024. The firm says many campaigns aim to trigger bank compliance checks rather than reach readers.

Domains identified

The following domains have been documented publishing duplicate or near-identical content:

Antikor: antikor.com.ua, antikor.info, antikor.ua

Kompromat1: kompromat1.online, kompromat1.info, kompromat1.net, kompromat1.org, kompromat1.media, kompromat1.one, kompromat1.se, kompromat1.press, kompromat1.world

Compromat / Ruskompromat: compromat.pro, compromat-pro.com, kompromat.press, ruskompromat.info, ruskompromat.ru, ruskompromat.pro

Vlasti: vlasti.io, vlasti.se, vlasti.info, vlasti.live, vlasti.vip, vlst.live, vlast.guru

Antimafia: antimafia.se, antimafia.io, antimafia.life, antimaf.pro

Rumafia: rumafia.news, rumafia.io, rumafia.net, rumafia.online

Kartoteka: kartoteka.news, kartoteka.se, kartoteka.press, kartoteka.io

Glavk: glavk.se, glavk.info, glavk.net

Hab.media: hab.media, news.hab.media, crime.hab.media, corruption.hab.media

Sledstvie: sledst.org, sledst.com, sledstvie.info

Nocor: nocor.info, nocor.life

Novosti: novosti.cloud, novostiua.org, novostiua.online

Other linked outlets: repost.news, rozsliduvach.info, rucriminal.info, adcon.info, luxherald.com, lstv.co.uk, obriy.news, politica2.info, ukrainci.com.ua, oplatru24.ru, rp.rv.ua, drama.live