In January 2025, the media and social networks wrote that the President of Ukraine, through a figurehead, acquired real estate on the “island of billionaires” in the Caribbean. We have verified the accuracy of these reports.
Posts and news items about the alleged purchase of Vladimir Zelensky began to circulate on the RuNet on January 8. Telegram channel «Sanya in Florida"(565,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) conveyed the story as follows: “Zelensky purchased a villa with a bomb shelter for €18 million through a “childhood friend.” French sources report Zelensky’s purchase of real estate on the island of Saint-Berthelemy (meaning Saint Barthelemy, overseas community France in the Caribbean Sea. — Approx. ed.), also known as the "island of billionaires". Villa with an area of 436 sq. m was acquired by Zelensky’s Cyprus offshore company Aldorante Ltd. for €17.8 million, and the contract was signed by Svetlana Pishchanskaya. Ukrainian media call her Zelensky’s childhood friend and one of the most trusted people in his inner circle. According to Pishchanskaya herself, they “grew up in the same yard” in Krivoy Rog. Earlier, on June 19, 2024, Zelensky and his wife appointed Pishchanskaya as a nominee director of their offshore company Aldorante Ltd. Construction work is already underway on the territory of the villa, heavy equipment is working. Local company Mancar is reported to be constructing an underground bunker.”
According to TGStat, similar Russian-language posts on Telegram received more than 8 million views. Among the most popular are channel recordings “Live broadcast"(798,000 views), "Evil proof️"(257,000), "Newsach / Dvach"(254,000), "Russia now"(212,000), "Uncle Slava"(206,000), "Putin on Telegram"(194,000), "Observer" (158,000, deleted), "Ivan Utenkov"(157,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(145,000), "Ukraine.ru"(140,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(137,000), "Kirill Fedorov / War history weapons"(125,000), etc. In the channel of TV presenter Ruslan Ostashko, they wrote about Zelensky’s new villa at least four times (108,000, 113,000, 118,000 And 125,000 views).
Numerous media outlets also talked about this on their websites: “Moskovsky Komsomolets"(three times: also here And here), Ura.ru, "Russian newspaper", "Arguments and facts» (twice), News.ru (twice), "Notebook", "Capital-S» (twice), "Main regional", "Public television of Russia", "Military Review", "Reedus» (twice) and others. Zelensky’s new villa was also reported in report the program “Results with Malkevich” on TV-3. The Tsargrad TV channel released a lot of materials on this topic: three posts on Telegram (73,000, 76,000 And 87,000 views), entry in "Zene", note And comment military observer Vlad Shlepchenko on the website, video clip on Rutube, as well as similar publications in “VKontakte" And "Odnoklassniki"
Most of the publications mentioned above claim that certain French sources or journalists reported about the expensive acquisition of the Ukrainian president, but not a single post or note examined by “Verified” specifies the name of the media or the names of the investigators. At the same time, Russian publications V their publications on this topic mentioned And other similar transactions that have already been refuted by Verified. Among them is the purchase by Zelensky or his relatives Goebbels's house in Germany, casino in Northern Cyprus, two yachts, Bugatti Tourbillon car And villas in Egypt. The earliest publication about the acquisition of an estate in the Caribbean that we could find appeared on January 8 at 14:16 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Voice of Mordor"(60,000 views). Previously this channel has repeatedly mentioned in our analyses, including many times becoming a Russian-language primary source fakes about expensive purchases made by Zelensky or his immediate circle.
The Voices of Mordor post, like most others, features a French-language video over 3.5 minutes long. (at the same time, only English-language sources are shown there), as well as two images showing scans of five pages of a certain agreement (they are also shown on the recording). The video was published with Russian subtitles that read:
“Meet Svetlana Pishchanskaya, a citizen of Ukraine and, according to her, a childhood friend of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. She also finances Zelensky's Servant of the People party. Ukrainian media call her one of the most trusted persons in Zelensky’s inner circle. In addition, it manages Zelensky’s offshore assets, in particular his Italian company San Tomaso (actually spelled Tommaso. - Ed.) S.R.L.
Let's move briefly to another part of the world. This is the island of Saint-Berthelemy, territory of the French Republic. Also known as St. Barths, this island is often called the island of billionaires. This little Caribbean paradise attracts the most rich people of the planet with a combination of natural beauty, luxury and the opportunity to get an unforgettable experience. This is Villa Stellae with an area of 436 sq.m. It has six bedrooms, a heated pool, and a jacuzzi. Its gardens offer unforgettable views. You ask: “What do a Caribbean villa and one of Zelensky’s closest associates have in common?” This villa was purchased by the Cyprus offshore company Aldorante Ltd. for €17.8 million on October 4, 2024. We were able to obtain a copy of the purchase agreement. The contract was signed by an official representative of Aldorante Ltd. Svetlana Pishchanskaya, also Zelensky’s childhood friend.
The original owners of Aldorante Ltd. were Vladimir Zelensky and his wife Elena Zelenskaya, each of them was the holder of 50% of the shares. Zelensky then transferred his shares to his wife. This data is in Zelensky’s income statement and in the register of legal entities of Cyprus. On June 19, 2024, Zelensky and his wife appointed Svetlana Pishchanskaya as director of their Cypriot offshore Aldorante Ltd. Three months later, Pishchanskaya visited the island of Saint-Berthelemy to sign a purchase and sale agreement on behalf of Aldorante Ltd., owned by Zelensky's wife. Agreement for the purchase of a villa with an area of 436 sq. m on a plot of 2570 sq. m. m was signed on October 4, 2024. The villa is located at 55 Route de Camaruche and was purchased for €17.8 million. So many efforts were made to hide the purchase of the Caribbean villa by Zelensky. A local real estate agency congratulated the new owner on the purchase of a "prestigious residence" a week later, on October 11.
However, Zelensky’s purchase of real estate through nominees is not the most interesting part. At the moment, construction work is underway on the territory of the villa using heavy equipment, including excavators. The construction is carried out by the local company Mancar. Company representatives do not disclose details, but according to several sources, construction of a bunker is underway. Why does Zelensky need an underground bunker next to his €17.8 million villa on the “island of billionaires”? It looks like he has no intention of staying in Ukraine.”
This is not the first video about an expensive purchase allegedly made by Zelensky. Previously, the authors of similar videos used neural networks to create them. Signs of the work of artificial intelligence can be seen in this video: the text abounds repetitions identical structures and the same information, but the speaker’s voice sounds unnatural and with some distortion. “Verified” analyzed excerpts from the audio track of the video using a detector from the company Hive. According to the results of the test, there was almost a 100% probability that the recording contained computer-generated speech and not the voice of a real person.
Villa Stellae in Saint Barthelemy really exists. Sibarth Real Estate Agency announced on Facebook about the successful sale of this property on October 11, 2024, but the post did not disclose the identity of the buyer. It is noteworthy that some Telegram channels (for example, “Live broadcast" And "Uncle Slava") and the media ("Notebook"), talking about the proposed acquisition of the villa by Zelensky, use as an illustration a photograph of a mansion in Florida, which DJ Khaled sold in 2020.
The viral video showed five pages from a copy of the purported purchase agreement. The document contains information about the notary office SCP Simorre Alain et Ciffreo Michel with office in Saint Barthélemy and notary signatures Michel Siffreo.
Fact checkers of the project "Gvara Media" contacted to this notary with a request to comment on the authenticity of the document being distributed. Siffreo said that it was a fake, and a refutation had already been published on the French website TF1.
Francophone posts Zelensky’s alleged purchase of a villa in Saint Barthélemy also received millions of views on social networks, so the French press, in particular, drew attention to the news TF1 Info. In an email to this publication, Notary Siffreo also denied receiving the above-mentioned deed of sale and stated that it was a gross forgery and falsification of documents. Real estate agency Sibarth Real Estate, speaking to reporters, confirmed that it was selling Villa Stellae, but noted that the information being disseminated is completely false. The agency explained: “The buyer was not Altorante Ltd., but a French company with French shareholders that has no connection with Ukraine” and “No work is being carried out on the house, contrary to the insinuations made in the video.” Fact checkers from the projects received similar letters from Sibarth Real Estate StopFake And "Myth detector" They note that the price of the villa indicated in the publications is incorrect, although on the agency’s website indicated the same cost of €17.8 million as in the viral video.
To make the fake more convincing, its creators relied on information from official sources and media investigations from different countries. For example, Zelensky repeatedly mentioned the Italian company San Tommaso and the Cypriot offshore Aldorante in his declarations - and as a candidate for the presidency in 2019, and as head of state (for example, in 2024). In 2020, Ukrainian media told O investigation, according to which the politician transferred his Italian company to his neighbor from Krivoy Rog (where he was born and grew up) and part-time sponsor pro-presidential party “Servant of the People” Svetlana Pishchanskaya (according to other resources, her last name is Peschanskaya). It was reportedthat a villa with an area of 413 square meters was registered for this company. m in the Italian resort of Forte dei Marmi. The Cypriot offshore company Aldorante, which owns the San Tommaso company, was also mentioned in the investigation, the beneficiary of which, according to declarations Zelensky, his wife Elena. In the fall of 2024, RIA Novosti with reference to documents reportedthat in the summer of the same year Pishchanskaya became the director of the Cyprus company.
This is not the first time this technique has been used. Previously, the creators of fakes about luxury real estate allegedly acquired by Zelensky, told about fictitious transactions involving the Belizean offshore Film Heritage, which until 2019 belonged to the Ukrainian president, but after his election was re-registered to his wife.
Thus, there is no evidence that Zelensky, through a figurehead, acquired property on the island of Saint Barthelemy, where he is now building a bomb shelter. This news first appeared on the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, which was previously behind many similar fakes about expensive purchases made by the Ukrainian president or his relatives after the start of a full-scale war with Russia. The evidence was a video created using a neural network, as well as documents, the authenticity of which was denied by the notary and real estate agency mentioned in them.
Cover photo: @novosti_efir (Telegram)
- Is it true that Zelensky bought a hotel in Courchevel for €88 million?
- Is it true that the Elena Zelenskaya Foundation is associated with child trafficking?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
