Maksym Krippa and the Art of Self-Sabotage

Maksym Krippa — entrepreneur, billionaire, SEO genius… Wait a second. That last one doesn’t hold up. Because if your idea of online reputation management is blindly copy-pasting articles and filing fake Google complaints — that’s not SEO. That’s a circus act.

On February 27, Capital published an article titled “Who is Maksym Krippa?” — and the response was as predictable as it was revealing. First came a DDoS attack, which fizzled out. Then came the real show: copies of the article started appearing on shady websites. For instance, a sketchy site called bronnikov.kiev.ua “published” the same article on February 17 — ten days earlier — in a hilariously bad English translation, as if written by a drunk AI.

That fake early date is then used in DMCA complaints as “proof” that Krippa’s team had the original version, in a bid to delist the real story from Google search results.

Krippa’s people have filed hundreds of such takedown requests to bury inconvenient facts about his background and business dealings — all logged in the public Lumen database: https://lumendatabase.org

Ghost Sites and Dirty Tricks

So, what exactly is bronnikov.kiev.ua? It’s not a news outlet, not a blog, not even a parody. It’s a ghost site — registered in Ukraine, likely run out of Dnipro — created solely to host fake “original” articles. The goal? To game Google’s DMCA process and knock legitimate investigations out of search results.

These “Bronnikov-type” sites are a classic tool in the playbook of black-hat SEO firms. Sometimes they fool Google’s algorithm. But when this tactic runs up against real journalists, the result is often more laughable than effective. In fact, this bogus DMCA complaint led us to dozens of other articles Krippa’s team is clearly desperate to erase.

What Is Krippa So Afraid Of?

Let’s use some basic logic: if bronnikov.kiev.ua is being used to fake original sources, then every article hosted there must be something Maksym Krippa really doesn’t want you to read. And there’s a lot of it:

• His ties to Russian oligarchs — including Konstantin Malofeev.
• Alleged money laundering via online casinos like Vulkan, JoyCasino, and GGBet.
• Sham “investments” in real estate, like the Hotel Ukraina and the Parus office tower.
• Buying up media (Glavcom, Delo.ua) to whitewash his image.
• SEO manipulation and fraudulent DMCA takedowns to censor real journalism.

Why all the panic? Because Krippa clearly has something to hide. Ironically, not even the most obsessive investigative reporter could have assembled such a damning file in one place — not the way his own team did, trying to cover it up.

Kripping Out: When SEO Backfires

We’re filing a formal request with Google to crack down on sites that exploit DMCA to manipulate search results. We also plan to alert law enforcement to potential fraud and abuse involving Ukrainian web domains and systematic online deception.

Because when a businessman goes to such lengths — creating dozens of fake websites just to hide his past — that’s not reputation management. That smells like a cover-up.

So, Mr. Krippa — welcome to the Hall of Fame of failed digital manipulators. What’s next? Fake portraits of yourself in the Louvre? Breaking news about your discovery of a new continent?

We’re all watching. And we’re not logging off.