False '$500k Rolls-Royce' Claims Target Ukraine's Central Bank Governor

A photo of a man standing next to a caramel gold-colored Rolls-Royce Ghost luxury car in Kyiv has been shared alongside unevidenced and misleading claims that it belongs to the Head of the National Bank of Ukraine.

The claim, which appeared to have been amplified by Russian state media outlets and Kremlin-friendly Telegram channels, has also been widely shared by right-wing commentators in the U.S. and prominent conspiracy theorists alongside anti-Ukraine narratives.

Newsweek Misinformation Watch looked into the origins of the viral photo, separating the facts from the fiction.

"Well looky here. The Head of the Ukrainian national bank has bought himself a new Rolls-Royce. Keep donating to Ukraine.....times are so tough," David Vance, a right-wing blogger who was suspended from Twitter in 2022 following accusations of racism, wrote in a tweet that received more than 2.7 million views.

"Andriy Pyshnyi, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, has purchased a new Rolls Royce. CONGRATS!" wrote Stew Peters, whose account in December 2022 was reinstated on Twitter after a lengthy ban for sharing anti-vaccine and conspiracy theorist materials.

"Remember the scene in Goodfellas after The Lufthansa Heist when the guy buys a pink Cadillac and a mink coat and De Niro kicks off and tells them to take it back.

This is Ukraine's Finance Minister with his new Rolls Royce," another tweet with more than 30,000 views said.

Pyshnyi was the head of Ukraine's Oschadbank from 2014 to 2019, before being appointed to the top banker role, according to The Kyiv Independent, (not the finance minister, as the above tweet falsely suggested) in late 2022.

Many of the posts directly or indirectly accused the governor of misappropriating the funds the U.S. and its NATO allies sent to support Ukraine's resistance against Russia's invasion, alleging it to be evidence of corruption among the Ukrainian government and elites.

Fact or Fiction?

But as Newsweek Misinformation Watch found, the photo and the claims can largely be traced to unevidenced or dubiously-sourced reporting by Russian outlets, while the vehicle in question instead almost certainly belongs to a Ukrainian confectionary business mogul.

On March 21, a number of Russian-language outlets published articles featuring the photo of a man, whose identity Newsweek has been unable to verify independently, standing next to a caramel or gold-colored Rolls-Royce.

There was little other context given about the photo, either about who took the photograph, the identity of the man or any evidence that he was in fact driving or exiting the vehicle.

However, the reports unanimously posited that the man in question is Ukraine's central bank governor Andriy Pyshnyi, without elaborating further. Some cited the Telegram channel MediaKiller, known for spreading pro-Kremlin misinformation and "leaks," as their source.

Newsweek found the MediaKiller Telegram post in question, dated March 21, 2023, which stated: "The new Rolls-Royce of the new NBU chief Pyshnyi. Living the good life, unlike the average Ukrainian."

Other articles didn't reference the Telegram post, but claimed that "The NBU boss Andriy Pyshnyi recently became the owner of a brand new Rolls-Royce Ghost," without citing any specific sources.

Newsweek traced the earliest iteration of the claim to a former Ukrainian politician's Telegram channel. Oleksandr Dubinksy posted the photo and the "NBU governor" claim on March 21, around an hour before it was picked up by MediaKiller.

Dubinsky himself has been subject of controversies in the past, getting expelled from the ruling Servant of the People parliamentary faction in February 2021, after the United States imposed sanctions for allegedly interfering in the 2020 United States presidential election.

He has since also been expelled from the party for "violating the statute and disobeying the party's governing bodies."

In the days following the Rolls-Royce post, Dubinsky has accused the governor of waging a "fake news" campaign against him, including unverified reports that he has been placed on the "FBI's wanted list."

Newsweek could find no reliable source to support the "wanted list" claims targeting Dubinsky, nor his own claims about the Rolls-Royce, which appeared to be contradicted directly and indirectly by media reporting and public records.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost

Multiple Ukrainian outlets have previously reported that the caramel gold-plated Rolls-Royce Ghost, which is thought to be worth more than half a million U.S. dollars, belongs to a Ukrainian confectionary business owner Hennadii Vatsak.

Vatsak is known for his collection of luxury vehicles and supercars, including a Bentley, a Range Rover, an Aston Martin and a Maserati, all of which have a "vanity" plate that includes the number 0001—the same one seen on the back of the Rolls-Royce.

Vatsak is also a People's Deputy for the Vinnytsia Oblast, a region in Western Ukraine, and the cars he reportedly owns (including the Rolls-Royce) carry the AB car plate combination, which is the identifier for cars registered in Vinnytsia.

While the ownership of the vehicle is not public on the Ukrainian government's official registry, the details that are public also pour cold water over the narratives around Pyshnyi.

The vehicle purchase is registered on February 8, 2022, thus predating both Russia's invasion (and the resultant Western aid) and Pyshnyi's appointment to the role (which he took in October 2022).

Shortly after the photo went viral on social media, the Central Bank issued a statement of denial on its official page on Telegram.

"We refute the false information posted in Oleksandr Dubinsky's Telegram channel about the car's owner. The car in the photo does not belong to or is used by any NBU employee.

"Since the registration number in the photo is not obscured, it will not be difficult for all interested parties to establish the real owner of the car," the statement said.

In response to a Newsweek comment request, the NBU reiterated that the photo was misleading, affirming that "the car shown in the photo does not belong to and is not used by any of NBU employees."

"After the fake you referred to had been posted on social media, information about the motor vehicle's true owner immediately appeared on the internet. This person has not denied owning the car," the Central Bank said in an email.

"Be advised that Oleksandr Dubinsky, the author of the fake publication, is under sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The Department says on its webpage that Oleksandr Dubinsky is part of a russia-linked foreign influence network," the email also stated.

The claim was also soon rescinded by the MediaKiller Telegram channel, which cited "insider information" to suggest that the elite vehicle in fact belongs to Vatsak (though offered no other supporting evidence).

The caramel gold-plated "Ghost" was previously featured in an in-depth October 2022 article by a Ukrainian automobile-focussed publication TopGir, which included the photo of the car, as well as other caramel gold-colored supercars that it alleged are owned by Vatsak.

While this does not represent definitive proof that Vatsak is the real owner of the car in the photo, the combination of vehicle registry and past media reports strongly indicate that this is indeed the case.

Furthermore, the narratives suggesting that U.S. military and financial aid went towards the purchase of the "luxury car" are provably false, as its most recent purchase predates both the Russia-Ukraine war and Pyshnyi's appointment to his government role (even if he were the owner).

It is not the first time that U.S. social media voices appeared to resonate with narratives pushed by pro-Russian accounts when it comes to Ukraine, with Newsweek previously reporting on Zelensky being misquoted on NATO-Russia nuclear tensions and U.S. "sending U.S. children to war."

Newsweek has reached out to the Oleksandr Dubinsky for comment via email.

Update 28/03/2023 at 10:03 E.T.: This article was updated to include a quote from the National Bank of Ukraine.