Debunking fakes. No, Zelenskyy didn’t buy private bank in France for over €1 billion  

After the argument Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump, and JD Vance had in White House’s Oval Office on Feb. 28, another wave of disinformation aimed to defame the President of Ukraine and Ukraine’s European partners was launched online — building up on top of Russia’s usual theme of coming up with luxury spendings Zelenskyy supposedly does (earlier this year, we’ve debunked the fake piece about Zelenskyy buying a villa on “billioner island” in France). 

In March, fake messages about Zelenskyy buying, through an offshore company, a French private bank Milleis started spreading online. Let’s get to debunking. 

What happened? 

On March 6, the information about a French TV channel’s correspondent reporting on Zelenskyy supposedly buying a private French bank called Milleis for over €1 billion appeared — in a video. 

The video then was shared massively on pro-Russian Telegram channels such as Sheikh Tamir (“Шейх Тамир,” archive), Gura Anton (archive), websites such as ForPost (archive), Dzen (archive), Rambler (archive), and many others. 

“At the beginning of February, Maltex Multicapital Corp, one of Zelenskyy’s offshore that previously was noticed in Pandora Papers, bought Milleis Banque for €1.1 billion. The agreement was organized by the Rothschild company — Rothschild & Co, in which French President Emmanuel Macron worked from 2008 to 2012,” Russian media wrote. 

“The purchase agreement for Milleis Bank happened at the beginning of February. Back then, the media started to write news about the unstable condition of Zelenskyy and that it’s best for him to ‘urgently go to France,’” said a post in a pro-Russian Telegram channel “Sheikh Tamir.” 

This news was mass spread by users in social media, in particular by TikTok user Secret Guest (“Тайний гость,” archive), “Stone news” (“Камнь news,” archive), IRYNA (archive), on X by users Johnny Midnight (archive), @Flick1_ (archive); on Instagram by vvillani8 (archive), cichello.anna (archive), and giuliettochiesaofficial (archive), and others. 

Analysis 

First, we tried to find any information that would report on the purchase of Milleis bank. No trustworthy international or French media reported on the deal. 

Instead, we’ve found an interview (archive) with the general director of the bank Milleis Banque Nikolia Yuber, in which he talked to a journalist at the beginning of June 2024 and talked about his plans on selling the bank:

“Since I joined Milleis six years ago, I heard the rumors about the sale. It’s very concerning for investment bankers… but they worry more than our stakeholder. He’s very happy with his investments, and our good results are a part of the long-term plan, and the selling isn’t on the agenda.” 

In the Official bulletin of civilian and commercial advertisement (BODACC) that displays the business reports submitted—in particular reports covering purchase deals and ownership changes—we didn’t find any operations that would be conducted by that bank at the beginning of February 2025. Last reports concerning the bank were submitted in August 2024.

For the next step, we’ve analyzed the video presented as evidence for news about Zelenskyy purchasing the Milleis bank. We didn’t find any media corresponding with the logo used in the video. 

The logo of TV12 – unknown channel – isn’t present for the entirety of the video, which is not typical for media branding. 

At the beginning of the video, the man with a microphone stands in front of the bank and reports on the “breaking news.” Then, the video continues with a clip with a voiceover. 

It’s composed of a graphic background that is available on YouTube, photographs of Zelenskyy, Macron, and other people, logos, and screenshots from different digital media. 

Any evidence of the purchase deal, such as the banker’s comments or official documents, are absent from the video. 

We’ve separated the voiceover audio that supposedly belongs to the journalist and run it through the DeepFake-o-Meter tool. It concluded that the voiceover was AI-generated. 

Because the video had Russian subtitles put over other English subtitles, we tried to look for a source for this video and found out that, in the beginning, it was mass-spread on X with English subtitles. 

X’s user Johnny Midnight (archive) was one of the first to post this “news.” His post collected over 5 million views. 

The author’s profile says the following: “Join me weekdays at WFJB AM 1776 (parody account) MAGA. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility Dinesh, Ryan Fournier.” 

After getting the proof that the report is fake, we asked for a comment about the purchase of the bank by Zelenskyy or companies affiliated with him from Milleis Banque’s administration. 

Here’s the response we received: 

“Milleis Banque Prive is aware of the false information circulating on certain social networks and in the media. We categorically deny these allegations. Milleis Banque Privée has been owned by its shareholder, Anacap, since 2017 and remains so. We reserve the right to take any necessary action.” 

As such, information about Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buying a private bank in France is a fake aimed to discredit Zelenskyy and, indirectly, French President Macron who regularly speaks about his support of Zelenskyy and Ukraine. 

The video in the claims has been manufactured from publicly available photos, has a logo of non-existent media, and uses AI-generated voiceover. Milleis bank ownership remains the same since 2017, and its owner is Ancap, British company. 

Conclusion: Fake 

Author: Vasylyna Haviak

Editor: Olha Yakovleva