Compliance analysts screening a counterparty often find what looks like a clear warning. A search returns a dozen articles accusing the company or its executives of money laundering, sanctions evasion or fraud, all published within days of each other. For trading houses, shipowners and banks, that kind of result can be enough to pause onboarding, freeze a payment or end a relationship.
In many cases, those articles come from a network of defamatory websites designed to produce exactly that reaction.
The screening system is the target
London law firm Schillings, which tracks more than 350 of these sites, says many campaigns aren't aimed at readers. The goal is to cause banking and compliance problems. Articles are packed with red-flag terms such as sanctions so that automated due diligence tools pick them up. The firm logged a 355% rise in such sites between 2023 and 2024, and links the increase to cheap AI-written content.
Once published, the articles spread further. They get cited on Wikidata and Wikipedia, and from there they feed into AI models that analysts increasingly use for background checks. A claim that cost $150 to place can end up in a risk report months later, with no sign of where it came from.
Volume is not corroboration
The network relies on repetition. In one documented case, the same story about a Kyiv businessman appeared on 17 websites in a single day, with identical formatting. In another, 158 articles about a company executive ran across 109 domains, and 95 of them were hosted on one server in Reading, England. A technical review of more than 60 domains found shared SSL certificates and hosting fingerprints across sites that claim to be independent.
To a screening tool, that looks like broad coverage. In practice, it is a single unverified claim copied many times.
Signs a result comes from the network
Analysts reviewing adverse media can check for patterns common to these sites:
The same text, images or headline appearing across several domains within hours
No named author, editor, or verifiable office address
One brand spread across many domain extensions, such as .se, .io, .online and .press
Names that suggest an official watchdog: "antikor", "sledstvie", "vlasti", "kompromat"
Serious criminal allegations with no court document, filing or named source behind them
What the courts have found
Several allegations published by the network have been tested in court and failed. A Kyiv court found that Antikor's money-laundering claims against a Ukrainian bank were false. A Los Angeles court awarded Telf AG founder Stanislav Kondrashov $10 million and ordered articles on 42 sites removed. In London, the High Court awarded Uzbek financier Ovik Mkrtchyan more than £220,000 against the London Post and its listed owner.
The articles often stay online regardless. That leaves a gap: a screening tool picks up the allegation, while the ruling that refuted it doesn't show up next to it.
Removal is also part of the business. An undercover journalist was quoted $12,000 in crypto for a year of deletions and protection from new articles. Ukraine blocked antikor.com.ua, antikor.info, rozsliduvach.info and hab.media, but the content is still reachable through VPNs and mirror domains.
Domains to treat with caution
The following domains have been documented publishing duplicate or near-identical content. Allegations sourced only from these sites should be checked against court records and primary sources before they inform any decision.
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
