They have long been the favoured front firms for world’s crooked and the corrupt.

Scottish limited partnerships were used to carry out some of the world’s biggest money-laundering schemes, most spectacular frauds and dirtiest mercenary deals.

So it should be no surprise that the controversial corporate structures - usually known by their abbreviation SLP - would also appeal to common-or-garden cheats and plagiarists.

This newspaper eight years ago first reported that one of these firms had been used as the front for a global cluster of “essay mills”. 

These are the increasingly notorious websites which offer to do students’ homework assignments for cash. They also, experts warn, post huge risks of blackmail and fraud for young people who chose to engage with international organisations operating in a legal grey area.

England outlawed essay mills recently. Scotland has yet to do so.

Now a Scottish firm - an SLP - which has been openly offering to write assignments for students has got in to legal trouble.

But in Vladimir Putin’s Russia rather than this country.

A business officially headquartered at a PO Box in Edinburgh has been ordered to take down adverts in Russia.

The firm, called Educational Online Services LP, offers to do coursework and even dissertations for students. 

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It has been fighting the attempted crackdown - launched by prosecutors  in the town of Naro-Fominsk near Moscow - through the courts. It lost its most recent appeal in May, Russian court records show.

In a January 2024 ruling judges in Naro-Fominsk ruled that Educational Online Services LP had offered to carry out “qualificatory course assignments, dissertations and other work….required for intermediate and final appraisals”.

They concluded that such adverts were “unlawful and could confuse a certain circle of people.”

The judges were essentially saying that the firm’s website, called Studwork, was undermining the state’s system of academic certification. 

But they are proposing administrative rather than criminal sanctions against the firm, which they say is breaching 2006 Russian advertising regulations.

Educational Online Services, because it is an SLP, is under no obligation to  file accounts. Its finances, therefore, are entirely opaque.

Under new rules imposed in 2017, it has to say who owns it. The firm lists a Russian national, a 34-year-old Moscovite named Dmitry Feskov, as its person of significant control.

The firm, which says it has been running since 2011 and has provided four million “consultations", is no stranger to the courts in Russia. 

Vladimir Putin talks to students in Russia (Image: ALEXEY DRUZHININ/RIA NOVOSTI/AFP via Getty Images)

It has sued over online comments made on a Cyprus-based review site, Otzovik, where students who used its services described them as a “fraud”. Educational Online Services claimed such posts were defamatory. 

A Russian judge agreed that there had been no convictions for fraud against the firm and ordered the posts on Otzovik to be blocked.

The Herald previously looked at another Scottish firm, called Clever Networks LP. It fronted for websites offering essay writing services in English. The business - which advertised for backend staff in Ukraine but claimed to be international, has made no filings since 2017. 

Its websites are now down or their addresses redirect. 

The firm - which formerly used a Glasgow telephone number - previously told this newspaper it was headquartered in Scotland but did work around the world. It also insisted its business was ethical.

Researchers reckon the essay mill industry is heavily globalised. That means students using such services may never really know who they are dealing with.

Read more stores from David Leask:

Typically websites employ smart people, sometimes in poorer countries, to rustle up essays or dissertations - and then take a slice of the fee paid. 

Academics sometimes call this “contract cheating”. 

Universities, colleges and schools are still not sure how prevalent it is - and do not have failsafe methods for catching students who use essay mills, or even independent assignment writers who advertise their services on classified sites like Gumtree.

Richard Kjellgren, of Stirling University, was the lead researcher of a 2022 study in to essay mills and wider contract cheating for the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. He and his colleagues - when looking at private classified advertising - noticed “ghostwriters” from countries like Pakistan and Kenya.

Kjellgren stressed the big essay mills - as opposed to individuals or small groups advertising more informally - were essentially global businesses.

The expert said: “If we are talking about large-scale operations, capable of producing high volumes of bespoke coursework, then they’re likely to operate internationally.

“For instance, people may be employed to produce coursework in one country, but the organisation may advertise their services across multiple countries, making a direct appeal to local students by tailoring their advertisement to be well-suited to the local context.”

There are risks using an essay mill of this nature. Kjellgren reckoned students “could potentially become vulnerable to fraud, blackmail or other forms of exploitation” and “unwittingly engage with organised crime”.

He added: “ The contract cheating market is lucrative, and because there is a potential to generate profits with relatively low risks, the market where essay mills operate is likely to include some more nefarious actors who don’t shy away from engaging in student blackmail or exploitation to increase their profits.”

That does not mean all essay mills will all cheat their would-be cheaters. It also makes business sense, he said, for these sites to build up a reputation for delivering what they promise. Sometimes, Kjellgren said, they even work with students on campus who refer then to new customers.

Students at Moscow State University (Image: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

The very international nature of essay mills makes them hard to police. Some might have a Scottish corporate front - thanks to the UK’s soft-touch corporate laws -  but have customers, ghostwriters, back offices and banking arrangements spread across other multiple jurisdictions.

Kjellgren said: “It is extremely challenging for universities and national authorities to effectively disrupt and eliminate contract cheating and essay mills due to the international nature of this market. 

“It would take significant resources for authorities to respond to and investigate essay mills, and given that there are minimal costs and risks to set up new online essay mills, those that are being targeted by authorities may simply lay low for a while before returning to penetrate a new market in a different jurisdiction.”

Will bans work? Or just drive the trade on the dark web, where students may be at even more risk. Will Artificial Intelligence kill off the mills - or will they adopt hybrid tactics? 

The Russian site run by Educational Online Services is still up. 

There is a long tradition in Russia of school children sharing cheat sheets -  little bits of paper called shpargalki  - with with exam notes on them. These can then be rolled up to a pen or clutched in your palm. 

The Edinburgh SLP offers to sell these for a pocket-money - 100 rubles each, less than a pound -  for delivery within an hour.

It might argue that these little notes are helpful revising tools. But - at the other end of its business - it is offering to do university assignments for 5000 rubles. 

In Kjellgren thinks education authorities should look at prevention, at “novel ways of teaching and designing coursework to make it more difficult for students to outsource their work”.

There are technical legislative reasons why Scotland could not copy the new English law on essay mills, however, the SNP has said it is looking at its own bill.

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland said:  “Essay mills and their operators prey on the anxieties of students, positioning themselves as providing a legitimate service whilst undermining academic integrity. Legislation to control essay mills was introduced in England in 2022, and although we believe they are increasingly limited across Scotland, universities remain vigilant to all forms of plagiarism and cheating. Universities will always take cases of academic misconduct seriously in line with their own codes of practice, and this includes students who utilise essay mills to complete their coursework.

“As essay mills remain legal in Scotland, this could legitimise their use in the eyes of students who are looking for help due to pressures they are facing, whilst not realising they may be connected to unethical Scottish Limited Partnerships. We would welcome the introduction of legislation to ban the operation and advertisement of essay writing and other contract cheating services in Scotland, especially as technology around plagiarism becomes more advanced. Any student who is concerned about their coursework or academic performance should contact their university’s academic support team for help rather than turn to plagiarism.”