Reminds me of the 'ReceptioGate' scandal, where amongst other weird and dodgy behaviour, a medieval manuscript researcher, Carla Rossi, had invented an entire set of staff for her online research institute and was even emailing people from a pseudonym: https://thecritic.co.uk/receptiogate-and-the-absolute-state-...

(Previously seen on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34123302)

Wow, what an amazing turn to the story. The last I heard about it, we were just dealing with a plagiarizing academic and a rude assistant.