Orascom Development, the owner of the upscale Red Sea resort of El Gouna, denied on Wednesday media reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s family own a villa in the resort.
The reports circulated online are “completely false,” Orascom added in a statement.
The company is committed to protecting customer privacy and does not share any information or details about its customers, the statement further read. However, the company said, after reviewing its records, it found no evidence that Zelenskyy or any member of his family owned any property in El Gouna.
Orascom also said that the reports on social media included a photo of a villa that is already owned by an Egyptian family.
The photos of the alleged contract are also false and the company’s contract templates do not match the images that were shared, the statement added.
The false reports began to circulate on social media two weeks ago after Egyptian blogger and journalist Mohamed El-Alawi had claimed in a video on his YouTube Channel that the Zelenskyy’s family had bought a villa through humanitarian aid money allocated to support Ukraine.
The reports were based on a photo of a villa that was claimed to be owned by Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena. It was accompanied by a fake contract about the sale of the villa to Zelenskyy. YouTube shut down El-Alawi’s Channel, yet his videos are still shared on other platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter.
Orascom Development said it will be taking legal action against those who spread false reports.
Earlier, Orascom’s co-founder, business tycoon Naguib Sawiris also denied on Twitter on Tuesday that the Ukrainian president and his family owned a $5 million villa in El Gouna.
غير صحيح https://t.co/4FiSEIhNYk
— Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) August 29, 2023
