"Citation Extortion Rings" - I can relate to that: The head of the jury for my thesis defense had no shame in opening complaining in the public defense session

"Citation Extortion Rings" - I can relate to that: The head of the jury for my thesis defense had no shame in opening complaining in the public defense session: "I am THE authority in the field [never had heard of the guy before], why the hell you didn't come to me!?" The project had already been international award-winning, but then the thesis about it (from the single author) received a bad grade.