Hotel Taking 'Legal Action' Over Fake Claims That Zelensky Bought It

Legal action is being planned by the owners of a casino resort in Cyprus which was falsely said to have been bought up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A statement sent by Oscar Ltd, which operates the Vuni Palace and Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, said an "unauthorized and illegally" created version of their website had been uploaded to support a false rumor that Zelensky had bought the resort.

Multiple posts on social media viewed millions of times this week alleged the Ukrainian leader had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the resort through his company "Film Heritage Inc." Zelensky has repeatedly faced false claims that he and his wife have purchased extravagant properties around the world since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

A website that carried Vuni Palace's name was shared as proof of ownership, showing the name of Zelensky's company in a banner at the bottom of its homepage. The claim is thought to have originated from a now-deleted article by Turkish news site OdaTV.

The fake website was barely functional, not in Turkish, and—as was discovered by journalistic investigators the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network—was registered only a few days before the claim about Zelensky appeared online. The official website for the hotel does not mention Film Heritage Inc. nor any ties to Zelensky.

No other evidence to substantiate the claim was shared and it was quickly dismissed by Ukrainian officials and in an initial comment by the owners of the hotel.

Now the hotel's owners say it plans to take legal action over the creation of the fake website. In a statement sent to Newsweek, it said the story was a "baseless, untrue and a direct attack on our Company's commercial reputation and personal rights" and that no effort was made to contact the company prior to publication of the article in Oda TV.

Newsweek has contacted Oda TV for comment.

The owners said that it would now pursue legal action in response to the creation of the fake website, although it did not say whom it would be directed against. Newsweek has contacted Oscar Ltd for further comment.

"The website with the extension https://casinohotelvunipalace.com/, where the name of the company with the title 'Film Heritage Inc.' is mentioned in the news article, is a fake website that has nothing to do with the official website of our hotel and where images whose copyright belongs to our Company are used unauthorized and illegally," the statement read.

"Further legal action will be taken in this regard. My hotel operates through the official website https://www.vunipalacehotel.com/ and there is no other website other than this."

Oscar Ltd said any sale of the resort would be subject to "detailed" government approval. It also refuted claims in the Oda TV story that it had stopped taking reservations through Booking.com in May "due to ownership change process."

"As it is known, Booking.com website cannot be booked through Turkey due to the restriction by the authorities in Turkey and this issue has been on the agenda for days in the media; it is a well-known information by everyone," the statement said.

"Our hotel continues to receive international reservations legally through Booking.com."

Newsweek has previously investigated other baseless allegations about President Zelensky owning extravagant property around the world including that he bought a $20 million mansion in Florida, a $5.5 million mansion with an infinity pool, and two yachts worth $48 million and $75 million.

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