Same story, 17 websites: the network selling defamation
Seventeen websites published the same story about a Kyiv businessman on one day in January, with matching headlines and identical formatting. The case is one of several drawing attention to a network of defamatory websites that publish and remove allegations for money.
Seventeen websites published the same story about a Kyiv businessman on one day in January, with matching headlines and identical formatting. The businessman has since logged more than 100 such articles about himself. The case is one of several that have drawn attention this year to a network of defamatory websites. The sites present themselves as news or anti-corruption outlets, and investigators say they publish and remove allegations for money.
Price of a story, price of removal
Placing a negative article with the Antikor group is said to cost $150 to $200. Removing one costs far more. A journalist posing as a client was quoted $12,000 in cryptocurrency for a year-long package. It covered deletion, protection from future articles and two positive pieces.
In the UK, the operator of Leeds TV confirmed by email that the site takes payment to publish stories. He listed Kazakh clients, Ukrainian oligarchs and crypto gambling operators as customers.
Antikor has denied charging to publish or delete content.
One server, many mastheads
The sites trade under different names and domain extensions, but share technical links. Court filings in a US defamation case showed near-identical IP addresses across Antikor, Kompromat1, Ruskompromat and Antimafia sites. A later campaign against one company executive ran 158 articles across 109 domains, and 95 of those were hosted on one server in Reading, England. A separate review of more than 60 domains found shared SSL certificates and hosting fingerprints.
Offshore owners, missing offices
Antikor lists no editor or staff. Its Kyiv address leads to a residential complex. The trademark belongs to a Panama foundation linked to a Belize company. Ukrainian law enforcement has named Kostyantyn Chernenko, a former parliamentary assistant who left Ukraine in 2021, as the alleged organiser.
The UK sites follow a similar pattern. The London Post, Essex TV, Manchester TV and The Daily Brit were traced to 2Trom Media Group. None of the company's registered addresses had an office, and its listed owner, Viktor Tokarev, could not be found.
Rulings that don't stick
Court wins have had limited effect. A Kyiv court found that Antikor's money-laundering allegations against a Ukrainian bank were false. In London, Uzbek financier Ovik Mkrtchyan was awarded more than £220,000 against the London Post and Tokarev, who did not defend the case. The article stayed online for weeks after the judgment. Ukraine's court register now holds more than 1,000 documents related to Antikor.
Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications blocked antikor.com.ua and antikor.info in May 2025, and later rozsliduvach.info and hab.media. The content remained accessible through VPNs.
A growing sector
London law firm Schillings tracks more than 350 junk news sites. It recorded a 355% rise between 2023 and 2024. The firm says many campaigns are designed to surface in bank compliance and due diligence checks, causing financial problems for the people targeted.
The full domain list
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, compromat.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
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