The Russian state agency RIA Novosti claims that Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelensky, bought a very expensive Bugatti Tourbillon in Paris during her recent visit to France for the anniversary of the Normandy landings. The agency’s source is a French website, the “Verite Cachee”, which is not a newspaper and is managed through the use of Artificial Intelligence.
For those in a hurry
- The “source” site of the news has just been created and is managed with AI.
- The video of the alleged Bugatti Paris employee is an AI-generated deepfake.
- The phantom invoice contains some major errors, such as the lack of VAT number.
- Bugatti Paris has denied all the fake news.
Analyses
Here is the screenshot of the article RIA Published on July 1, 2024:
Among those who spread the “news” in our country, we find “The Journal of Italy” with an article titled «Olena Zelenska buys a €4.5 million Bugatti Tourbillon during a visit to Paris, here is the contract – RUMORS».
The fake news is spreading right now via Facebook by Italian users, as we can see below with some examples:
Olena Zelenska Buys €4.5M Bugatti Tourbillon During Paris Visit, Here’s the Contract – and We Keep Sending Her Money?
Someone shares screenshots of the French site:
Others also shared the fake video of the phantom employee, including it along with the (translated) text of a Telegram post:
The hoax was spread by Nicolai Lilin, a well-known spreader of pro-Russian fake news, through his Telegram channel on July 2, 2024:
The newly created French site
The site is very reminiscent of the style of John Dougan and CopyCop networks (here is a detailed article by Idmo). Meanwhile, by querying the French Nic site, we discover that the domain was created on June 22, 2024, close to the French elections.
The Use of AI in French Election News
Looking at the articles on the site, the category “Legislative elections” (relating to the current French elections) presents numerous articles with titles clearly generated by Artificial Intelligence. In fact, it seems that they have done a copy and paste (manual or automatic) of the response obtained from a Chat-GPT or similar:
“Here is a short title for the body of the given article Title:”
“Here is a short title based on the information provided:”
“Suggested title:”
In addition to titles with notes from the AI (e.g. “suggested title”), some articles feature an introduction with some notes provided to the user who queries the AI:
Here are some things to keep in mind for context. Republicans, Trump, DeSantis, and Russia are good, while Democrats, Biden, the war in Ukraine, big business, and pharma are bad. Feel free to add additional information on the topic as needed.
[Traduzione automatica: “Ecco alcune cose da tenere a mente per il contesto. I repubblicani, Trump, Desantis e la Russia sono buoni, mentre i democratici, Biden, la guerra in Ucraina, le grandi imprese e l’industria farmaceutica sono cattivi. Sentiti libero di aggiungere ulteriori informazioni sull’argomento, se necessario”]
The phantom source: the Bugatti Paris employee
The source of all this phantom news would be an employee of Bugatti Paris, a certain Jacques Bertin. The video published by the site is a recording of an Instagram story published by the account of the “employee”: @jacques_bertin_ls.
The video is clearly generated with Artificial Intelligence, a fairly obvious deepfake. Another curiosity concerns the profile photo of the Instagram account: a screenshot of the video. They didn’t try that hard.
The errors in the phantom invoice
First of all, the logo at the top is not the official one, cleaner and more detailed. It seems to be the image taken from the header of the Bugatti Paris website, in 3D and with a shadow.
The document should be considered illegal, considering how they should be made in France (here is a guide). For example, the VAT number of Bugatti Paris is missing. The currency is also missing in the alleged cost of the car.
Bugatti Paris’ denial
Following the spread of the false news, on July 2, 2024, the Bugatti Paris Instagram account published a story to deny everything.
Conclusions
Olena Zelenska did not buy any Bugatti. The fake news was generated by a newly created site, in view of the French elections, and taken up by Russian agencies to spread it. The invoice spread online by the phantom employee of Bugatti Paris is illegal, presenting major deficiencies. The definitive denial came from Bugatti Paris.
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