Kremlin-Linked Oligarch’s University Builds Drones for Ukraine War While His Associates Run $25M Academic Cheating Empire

In a story that connects essay mills, Google Ads, and Russian military drones, an investigation reveals how a sprawling academic cheating network has generated nearly $25 million in revenue while maintaining curious ties to a Kremlin-connected oligarch whose Russian university builds drones for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Google Ads Academic Cheating Machine

Search for any terms related to academic cheating services on Google—phrases like “help with exam online” or “term paper online”—and you’re likely to encounter websites with “nerd” or “geek” in their names. Sites like thenerdify[.]com and geekly-hub[.]com promise academic assistance through simple text message requests.

These websites prominently display “honor codes” claiming they don’t condone academic cheating and won’t write papers for students. However, testing reveals a different reality. According to Joseph Thibault of the Substack blog “This Isn’t Fine,” the Nerdify brand of websites will happily ignore that mantra.

“We tested the quick SMS for a price quote,” Thibault wrote. “The honor code references and platitudes apparently stop at the website. Within three minutes, we confirmed that a full three-page, plagiarism- and AI-free MLA formatted Argumentative essay could be ours for the low price of $141.”

Google’s Blind Eye to Cheating Services

Despite Google’s policy prohibiting ads that “enable dishonest behavior,” the Nerdy brands have quietly bought their way to the top of Google searches. When one Nerdy-related Google Ads account gets shut down, the group simply forms a new entity with a front-person—typically a young Ukrainian woman—starts a new ads account with a new website and domain name (usually with “nerdy” in the brand), and resumes running Google ads for the same set of keywords.

Since January 2025 alone, UK companies belonging to the group that have been shut down by Google Ads include:

• Proglobal Solutions LTD (advertised nerdifyit[.]com)
• AW Tech Limited (advertised thenerdify[.]com)
• Geekly Solutions Ltd (advertised geekly-hub[.]com)

Currently active Google Ads accounts for the Nerdify brands include:

• OK Marketing LTD (advertising geekly-hub[.]net), formed in the name of Olha Karpenko, a young Ukrainian woman
• Two Sigma Solutions LTD (advertising litero[.]ai), formed in the name of Olekszij (Alexey) Pokatilo

The Web of Connections

At the center of this network is Alexey Pokatilo, who has been in the essay-writing business since at least 2009, operating a paper-mill enterprise called Livingston Research alongside Alexander Korsukov. According to a former employee’s account, Livingston Research farmed its writing tasks out to low-cost workers from Kenya, Philippines, Pakistan, Russia, and Ukraine.

Pokatilo moved from Ukraine to the United Kingdom in September 2015 and co-founded Awesome Technologies, which pitched itself as a way for people to outsource tasks by sending text messages to the service’s assistants. His co-founder was Filip Perkon, a Swedish man living in London who touts himself as a serial entrepreneur and investor.

Russian Propaganda Connections

The connections between these entrepreneurs and Russian interests run deep. Years before starting Awesome Technologies together, Perkon and Pokatilo co-founded a student group called Russian Business Week while they were classmates at the London School of Economics.

Around the time Perkon and Pokatilo launched Awesome Technologies, Perkon was building a social media propaganda tool called the Russian Diplomatic Online Club, which he said would “turbo-charge” Russian messaging online. The club’s newsletter urged subscribers to install a third-party app called Tweetsquad that would retweet Kremlin messaging on Twitter.

During the contentious Brexit vote, the Russian embassy in London used this spam tweeting tool to auto-retweet the Russian ambassador’s posts from supporters’ accounts.

The Oligarch Connection

A review of corporations tied to Mr. Perkon finds he holds or held director positions in several U.K. subsidiaries of Synergy University, Russia’s largest private education provider. Synergy has more than 35,000 students and sells T-shirts with patriotic slogans such as “Crimea is Ours” and “The Russian Empire — Reloaded.”

The president of Synergy University is Vadim Lobov, a Kremlin insider whose headquarters on the outskirts of Moscow reportedly features a wall-sized portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the pop-art style of Andy Warhol. For a number of years, Lobov and Perkon co-produced a cross-cultural event in the U.K. called Russian Film Week.

International Student Exploitation

While Synergy University promotes itself as Russia’s largest private educational institution, hundreds of international students tell a different story. Online reviews from students paint a picture of unkept promises: Prospective students from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and other nations paying thousands in advance fees for promised study visas to Russia, only to have their applications denied with no refunds offered.

“My experience with Synergy University has been nothing short of heartbreaking,” reads one such account. “When I first discovered the school, their representative was extremely responsive and eager to assist. He communicated frequently and made me believe I was in safe hands. However, after paying my hard-earned tuition fees, my visa was denied. It’s been over 9 months since that denial, and despite their promises, I have received no refund whatsoever.”

The AI Pivot

Where are they now? Pokatilo is currently running a startup called Litero.Ai, which appears to be an AI-based essay writing service. In July 2025, Pokatilo received pre-seed funding of $800,000 for Litero from an investment program backed by venture capital firms AltaIR Capital, Yellow Rocks, Smart Partnership Capital, and I2BF Global Ventures.

Meanwhile, Filip Perkon is busy setting up toy rubber duck stores in Miami and at least three locations in the United Kingdom. These “Duck World” shops market themselves as “the world’s largest duck store.”

Drones for Ukraine War

This past week, Mr. Lobov was in India with Putin’s entourage on a charm tour with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Synergy is billed as an educational institution, a review of the company’s sprawling corporate footprint shows it is also assisting the Russian government in its war against Ukraine.

The website bpla.synergy[.]bot, for instance, says the company is involved in developing combat drones to aid Russian forces and to evade international sanctions on the supply and re-export of high-tech products.

Responses and Denials

After publication of this story, Mr. Pokatilo responded to requests for comment, stating he has no relation to Synergy nor to Mr. Lobov, and that his work with Mr. Perkon ended with the dissolution of Awesome Technologies. He emphasized that Litero “does not provide contract cheating services and is built specifically to improve transparency and academic integrity in the age of universal use of AI by students.”

Mr. Perkon also responded, stating that the photo of him in a Nerdify T-shirt was taken after a startup event where he volunteered as a photo model, and that he has no business relations to Nerdify or any other ventures in that space. He noted that he closed down Russian Film Week in 2022 following the start of the Ukraine war.

KrebsOnSecurity would like to thank the anonymous researcher NatInfoSec for their assistance in this investigation.

Tags: academic cheating, Google Ads, essay mills, Russian drones, Kremlin connections, Synergy University, Vadim Lobov, Filip Perkon, Alexey Pokatilo, Litero.ai, Livingston Research, Russian Business Week, Russian Diplomatic Online Club, Ukraine war, international student scams, AI writing tools

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