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Fact Check: Did Ukraine’s first lady purchase $4.8 million Bugatti supercar?
July 7, 2024
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptPolygraph video
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HEADLINE:
Fact Check: Did Ukraine’s first lady purchase $4.8 million Bugatti supercar?
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PUBLISHED AT: (DATE & TIME)
BYLINE: Leonid Martynyuk
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VIDEO EDITOR: Nik Yarst
SCRIPT EDITORS: ft, Holly Franko
VIDEO SOURCE (S): AFP
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EDITOR NOTES:))
((AFP Olena Zelenska WRAP))
On July 1, Russian media reported that Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, bought a €4.5 million Bugatti supercar.
Thousands of pro-Kremlin users spread this news on social media, reaching 12 million users on X, the BBC reported.
((AFP RIA NEWS WRAP))
Dozens of U.S. websites published the story, most sourcing RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned agency.
((AFP Olena Zelenska Vododyir Zeleskiy WARAP))
RIA Novosti cited a report by Vérité Cachée, an obscure French language website, claiming Ukraine’s presidential couple attended a Bugatti presentation in Paris.
((AFP Pentagon wrap))
RIA Novosti linked this to a Pentagon report on Ukrainian corruption, omitting mentions of Kyiv's anti-corruption progress.
Vérité Cachée’s report included footage of a Bugatti whistleblower "Jacques Bertin" and a copy of the invoice.
RIA Novosti used it to report:
“Zelenskyy's wife bought one of the most expensive supercars in the world, media learned. … According to the publication [Vérité Сachée], the Tourbillon cost Zelenska 4.5 million euros.”
The news is false.
(( AFP Bugatti Turbillon presentation WRAP))
Bugatti S.A.S. told Polygraph.info that Olena Zelenska “isn’t a customer” and the reports about her purchasing a Bugatti are “fake news.”
Vérité Cachée was created just nine days before publishing the Zelenska fake.
((CYBERNEWS web screen shoot ))
Fact-checkers identified the “whistleblower Jacques Bertin" video as an AI-generated deepfake.
(( X Community description web shoot ))
Community posts on X highlighted legal errors and called the invoice fake.
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation called it an attempt to discredit Zelenska.
((BBC web screen shoot ))
The BBC linked the fake news to John Mark Dougan, a fugitive ex-U.S. cop who runs a Kremlin disinformation network from Moscow.
RIA Novosti later deleted its article but did not explain it was fake.
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