Pugachev claimed to have defended 2 dissertations, including "Methods and investment policy of the management model of the bank" at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In October 2000, he defended the dissertation "Development of information technology for management of financial resources of credit organizations". According to official data, he was awarded Doctor of Technical Sciences. Pugachev wrote three monographs and authored more than forty research papers. Other sources found Pugachev's three diplomas and other facts of his biography to be fraudulent.