You're reading: Zelenskiy files his asset and income declaration for 2018

Ukraine’s newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy filed his online declaration on May 20, revealing his earnings for 2018. The total amount of accrued income amounted to almost $380,000, or $100,000 up from his previous e-declaration for 2017.

As in previous years, Zelenskiy’s biggest source of income was his production company Studio Kvartal 95 which paid him $160,000 last year.

His wife Olena Zelenska, in turn, has declared $190,000 in income from various sources: her salary from Kvartal 95, deposits in banks, renting of real estate, and the sale of shares and property.

The president has $190,000 and 107,000 euros in cash, while the first lady has Hr 150,000 in cash. The rest of the money the couple keeps throughout various bank accounts, but mostly in state-owned PrivatBank, Ukraine’s biggest bank.

PrivatBank was previously owned by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, Zelenskiy’s business partner who was involved in a series of alleged schemes to withdraw $5.5 billion from PrivatBank prior to the bank’s nationalization in 2016. Kolomoisky also owns one of the most popular TV channels in Ukraine, 1+1 Channel, which hosts Zelenskiy’s Kvartal 95 shows. Both have denied being connected politically.

Apart from money, the Zelenskiys have declared a lot of property accumulated over the years of their careers in entertainment business.

They have an apartment in the United Kingdom that cost Hr 42 million (worth $2.8 million at the time it was purchased in November 2014) and a villa in Italy worth Hr 88.6 million ($4 million at the time it was purchased in August 2015). The family also owns three residential apartments and a house in Kyiv, which together cost Hr 23.2 million ($872,000)  and account for over 1,000 square meters.

And Olena Zelenska has a 130-square-meter apartment in Crimea that she bought in 2013 for Hr 1.3 million (worth $123,000 in April 2013), which was reportedly half the market price at the time.

The couple owns two cars — a Land Rover and a Mercedes-Benz S-500 — and luxury watches by brands like Roleх, Piaget, Bovet, Breguet, and Tag Heuer.

They both are final beneficiaries or co-owners of firms like Kvartal 95 Studio, Zelari Fish, Aldorante Limited (Cyprus), Vilhar Holdings Limited (Cyprus), Film Heritage (Belize), and San Tommaso (Italy). They have declared three inventions, three utility models, and over 30 trademarks and also have investments in hotel rooms in Georgia.

But Zelenskiy also has debts. He has two active credits worth $23,000, and a loan from his own company Film Heritage worth 1.8 million British pounds.

According to Ukrainian law, before becoming president Zelenskiy was not required to file a declaration since he was not a public official — this was his main argument in response to ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko who pressured Zelenskiy to publish a declaration during the presidential election campaign.

But after Zelenskiy announced he would run for president, journalists had spotted him allegedly lying twice about his assets.

In the first case, journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative project revealed in January 2019 that Zelenskiy had co-owned three filmmaking companies in Russia, even though he previously had claimed to have completely given up his business in Russia after the Kremlin started a war against Ukraine in 2014.

After the investigation came out, Zelenskiy said he hadn’t played any operational role in those companies and only received royalties. And in March, he had reportedly transferred ownership of these three filmmaking studios — under the umbrella of Cyprus-registered firm Green Family — to his business partner Andriy Yakovlev.

In another case, the Slidstvo.info investigative agency found that Zelenskiy had owned a villa in Italy, which he did not declare in his 2017 declaration. The former comedian owned the villa through his Italy-registered company, San Tommaso. Zelenskiy said that back then he was not required by law to declare assets owned via a legal entity since he wasn’t a public official. The Italian villa has been declared in Zelenskiy’s latest declaration.