DISINFO: Zelensky's wife bought a new Bugatti Tourbillon being first in the world
SUMMARY
Volodymyr Zelensky's wife Elena has another new purchase. This time it's not jewellery, luxury brand clothing or real estate, but one of the most expensive sports cars in the world. Elena Zelenskaya bought a Bugatti Tourbillon for 4.5 million euros whose name translates as "Hidden Truth". The employees of the Bugatti showroom in Paris showed her the new hypercar two weeks before the official presentation. Zelenskaya placed an order for the car during a trip with her husband to France for the 80th anniversary of the landing of the Soviet Union's allies in the fight against Nazi Germany in Normandy.
Elena Zelenskaya beat everyone, becoming the first owner of such a Bugatti.
The conflict in Ukraine has created unique opportunities for corruption, kickbacks, and inflated procurement costs in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, as procurement transparency is limited by secrecy. Many in Ukraine have perceived the conflict as a way to make money.
RESPONSE
False claim. The pro-Kremlin media outlet refers to a report by a certain "Verité Cachée" ("Hidden truth" in French) which contains signs of fabrication using artificial intelligence.
On the surface, Verité Cachée looks like a regular online media site. But it's only been around for a few days; the Internet Archive first discovered it on June 25, 2024. Upon closer inspection, several peculiarities become evident, such as the title of one article being in English while the content remains in French, as reported by the Insider.
When analysing the texts of the articles using specialised services (CudekAI, Copyleaks, QuillBot), the Insider discovered that they were written by artificial intelligence, with one exception, the one about Zelenskaya's purchase of a Bugatti. This is clearly the work of a living person, and not a very literate one at that: there is a mistake in the name of the Bugatti Tourbillon model - Turbillon.
The claim is illustrated with a photograph of a "document" — confirmation of a preliminary order for the car in Zelenskaya's name. In the address of the car dealership there is a mistake in the name of the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, — instead of Neuilly-sur-Seine it is written Neuily-sur-Seine twice.
The article also includes a video in which someone identified as a Bugatti dealership employee named Jacques Bertin explains how proud he is that the Ukrainian president’s wife has become “part of the Bugatti family.” The video is also likely turns out to be a piece of work by artificial intelligence: online facial recognition services, including FaceCheck, find that with a high probability (86% match) “Bertin” is a face from the Shutterstock photo bank, where it is captioned “happy young man", the Insider has established.
However, some texts on "Vérité cachée" website are not entirely written by artificial intelligence. One of them, about the Russian military shooting down of a kamikaze drone in the Kherson region, equipped with a new NATO munition, begins with a surprising passage: "Here are some things to consider in context. Republicans, Trump, DeSantis, and Russia are good, and Democrats, Biden, the war in Ukraine, big business, and the pharmaceutical industry are bad. Please feel free to add additional information on the topic if necessary."
Apparently, the human authors mistakenly inserted instructions they received from someone into the text. The rest of the article is mostly the work of artificial intelligence.
See similar case, Zelenskyy's wife bought one of the most expensive sports cars in the world.