At the beginning of June 2024, information spread across the Internet that a company associated with the Ukrainian president had acquired a gambling establishment on the Mediterranean coast. We checked if this news is true.
Media and Telegram channels claim that the company Film Heritage, Inc., owned by the family of Vladimir Zelensky. in early May acquired the Vuni Palace hotel in the partially recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The casino located in this hotel is named in publications as one of the largest in Europe, and the purchase price is estimated at £150 million. News items are accompanied by photographs of the hotel, a video with the logo of the Turkish television company OdaTV and a link to the corresponding publication on its website.
The property, which ended up in the ownership of the Zelensky family, was reported by Russian publications (“Arguments and facts", Sputnik), and foreign (Greek City Times, alphanews.live). The news was actively shared by Telegram channels, including “Live broadcast"(742,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Russia now"(213,000), "Uncle Slava"(177,000), "Observer" (154,000) and "Putin on Telegram"(146,000). The information has spread widely outside the RuNet - for example, one of the English-language publications on social network X received more than 3 million views.
In recent months, information has been spreading on the Internet from time to time about the purchase of luxury real estate by Zelensky or his relatives in different parts of the world. "Verified" already sorted it out similar messages about transactions with mansions in the USA and Great Britain, a villa in Egypt and the Goebbels estate in Germany. All this news turned out to be fake.
Many publications about the Cypriot casino indicate the Turkish media OdaTV as the primary source. This is an independent media exists since 2007, the country's authorities have repeatedly pursued its journalists for their professional activities. A note about the deal involving a company close to Zelensky was posted on the OdaTV website on June 1. At the time of writing this analysis, the publication was deleted, but remained in archive. Attached to the note is the same one-and-a-half-minute video as the viral posts; the text itself retells the content of the video.
The only evidence in the video is the interface of what is said to be the “official website of the Vuni Palace hotel-casino.” The owner of the hotel complex, Film Heritage Inc., is allegedly listed at the bottom of the site.
This Belize registered entity was indeed mentioned in the 2021 release investigation Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), based on leaked documents known as the Pandora Archive. According to investigators, Film Heritage Inc. belonged directly to Zelensky until 2019, but on the eve of the presidential elections in Ukraine, he transferred his share to his wife Elena. At the time of the investigation, the Belizean company was part of a network of offshore companies associated with the family, which also operated in Cyprus.
The address of the hotel and casino website is not mentioned in the video, but in the screenshot the domain casinohotelvunipalacehotel.com is mentioned in the contact email address. Site with this address doesn't exist, and the interface shown in the video can be found on the website casinohotelvunipalace.com. It is not possible to book a room at this hotel through him. According to the service Who.is, the site was registered on May 29, 2024, which was three days before OdaTV published the subsequently deleted investigation. It is noteworthy that the site does not have a version in Turkish - mostly in Northern Cyprus.
Judging by the data available on the Internet, the official website of the Vuni Palace hotel is vunipalacehotel.com. In the Web Archive service the main page of the hotel complex appears since 2006, when the establishment welcomed its first guests. The reservation system on the website works smoothly (although most rooms are occupied many months in advance). And most importantly, there is no mention of Film Heritage on this resource. All this suggests that the “alternative” site was created for the sole purpose of reinforcing the information that was soon disseminated through the media.
On June 4, official denials appeared. A representative from the Vuni Palace Hotel speaks to the Cyprus Mail newspaper statedthat the hotel is still owned by the Oscar Group, founded by Turkish Cypriot Erdem Oscar. The company itself emphasized that it does not intend to sell the hotel, and Film Heritage is not among its owners.
Same day situation commented President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides. Although the authorities in Nicosia do not control the territory of the TRNC, they think it is part of a united Cyprus (among the UN countries, only Türkiye does not officially share this position). After the uproar, Christodoulides said that the information that appeared in the media led to a preliminary investigation, but at the moment no confirmation has been found.
Reports about the purchase by the Zelensky family of a hotel and casino on the Mediterranean coast were also denied by the Ukrainian Embassy in Cyprus. By opinion diplomatic mission, “another lie” is aimed at “discrediting Ukraine and its leadership,” as well as “creating diplomatic tension between Ukraine and Cyprus.”
Thus, the claim that Vladimir Zelensky bought a hotel and casino in Northern Cyprus is based on a video, the authors of which provide the only evidence - a link to a fake website of this casino, registered shortly before the video began to spread. The fact of the transaction was denied by representatives of the hotel and the Cypriot authorities.
The earliest Russian-language publication discovered by “Verified”, which talks about Zelensky’s expensive purchase, appeared on June 3 at 13:55 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Voice of Mordor"(103,000 views). This channel has already been mentioned several times in our analyzes as distributor misinformation, including about transactions Ukrainian leader with luxury real estate.
Cover photo: social networks
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