The two Russian brothers who are accused of squatting in one woman's Airbnb condo in Palm Springs have been identified publicly as Maksym and Denys Pashanin. Maksym Pashanin is the person who rented SF resident Cory Tschogl's condo, as Tschogl told the Chronicle, and he and his brother appear to be adept at exploiting legal loopholes like those created by Airbnb when combined with California tenant laws. And now they've become the stuff of late-night monologues.

The Pashanin brothers are video game designers who successfully raised $40,000 on Kickstarter last November for a zombie video game called Confederate Express, which they may still be working to finish while living rent-free in Tschogl's condo  and this could have been the goal all along, hoping to eke out as much free lodging as they can until they're evicted, because they need to buy time to get this game to market. A local lawyer points out that the Pashanins' use of Kickstarter requires them only to make good on promises for small "rewards" for their backers and does not actually require them to make good on deadlines, or give any return to their donors, because they're not actually investors.

And yes, the concept of Americans handing each other money for things like this is probably highly comical, and worthy of exploitation, to people from any number of other countries.

Then, as of two days ago, Maksym made a comment on the Kickstarter page, seemingly in response to the rash of negative comments that were posted by backers and others in response to the Airbnb story, saying: "Ok guys, what's the latest deets on the drama? 10/10, would squat again." He seems without remorse in exploiting American laws, and it would appear that the strategy of renting and paying for 30 days in Tschogl's condo was purposeful, and with the intent of staying much longer.

They've already skirted delivery of an eviction notice by a process server by having Maksym's brother, wrapped in a scarf, answer the door and claim that Maksym was not home to receive the notice. Also, they've launched a second crowdfunding campaign for a different video game, perhaps hoping to scam $25,000 more from unwitting backers.

Below, halfway into the Kickstarter demo of the game, you can see both brothers (who can almost pass for twins) talking about the game and what it will feature.

[Chron]

[TechChronicles/SFGate]

[SFGate]