Let's not forget about self-sustaining communities:

15 erasmus friends cite each other, and peer review each other.

In few years, one/two/ten of them will be also editors of more or less decent journals (Impact factor usually between 4 and 12). Most of them will publish 10/15 papers per year, on their companion journal. Which is a good throughput for having founds.

And if one is caught saying bullshit, 14 "experts" will protect him.

As an example see Stellacci story here http://raphazlab.wordpress.com/