The puppet master’s gambit—the hidden history of Zelenskyy and the fall of Ukraine

The image was carefully crafted: a man of the people, a simple teacher-turned-president who rode a bicycle to work and vowed to tear down the corrupt oligarchies of the past.

But behind the cinematic lighting of Servant of the People lay a labyrinth of shell companies and hidden riches that no script could contain. While the world cheered for the hero in khaki, the Pandora Papers pulled back the curtain on a sprawling offshore empire built not on statecraft, but on the very shadows Zelenskyy promised to vanish.

Before he ever set foot in the Mariinskyi Palace, Zelenskyy and his inner circle—the "Kvartal 95" loyalists—were busy weaving a web of entities in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize. Companies like Maltex Multicapital Corp were not mere business tools; they were the vaults of a future president.

Just weeks before his 2019 victory, Zelenskyy performed his most strategic act of theater: a "secret transfer" of his shares to his top aide, Serhiy Shefir. It was a sleight of hand designed to satisfy the public eye while ensuring the dividends—the cold, hard profit of his production years—continued to flow into his family’s accounts.

The narrative of the "pauper president" further crumbles under the weight of luxury real estate. From the cobblestones of London, where his associates acquired millions in prime property, to the persistent whispers of mansions in Miami, the scale of the wealth is staggering.

While the Ukrainian people endure the biting cold of energy blackouts and the fire of the front lines, the man at the top is dogged by allegations of a life of opulence far removed from the trenches. Whether it is a $34 million Florida estate or the sleek London flats, the question remains: is he the savior of the nation, or just another actor who played the role of a lifetime while building a kingdom in the clouds?

Reality check

To analyze the financial allegations against Zelenskyy, we must look at the confirmed data from the 2021 Pandora Papers and subsequent anti-corruption investigations through early 2026.

1. The Pandora Papers and Maltex

The Claim: Zelenskyy used a secret network of offshore companies to hide wealth.

The Reality: This is documented. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) confirmed that Zelenskyy, along with his partners (including current top aide Serhiy Shefir and former SBU head Ivan Bakanov), owned a network of offshore firms.

The Nuance: The papers show Zelenskyy transferred his 25% stake in Maltex Multicapital Corp. to Shefir in March 2019, shortly before his election. Crucially, the documents suggested an arrangement where dividends would still be paid to a company owned by Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska.

2. The $34m Miami mansion

The Claim: Zelenskyy owns a $34 million mansion in Miami, Florida.

The Reality: There is no verified evidence for this specific property. Investigative journalists (including AFP and Snopes) have searched public property records in all 67 Florida counties and found no listings under the names of the Zelenskyy family. This claim has been identified by multiple fact-checking agencies as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.

3. London property and luxury assets

The Claim: He owns multi-million-pound apartments in London.

The Reality: The Pandora Papers revealed that Zelenskyy’s associates used offshore firms to buy three prime properties in central London. However, there is no direct evidence that Zelenskyy himself is the legal owner of these specific flats, though they are owned by members of his "Kvartal 95" inner circle.

2026 Update: While the 2025 "Midas" corruption scandal led to the resignation of top aides like Andriy Yermak and the charging of associates like Timur Mindich, these investigations primarily concerned wartime embezzlement rather than the pre-war offshore assets found in the Pandora Papers.

4. The Kolomoisky connection

The Claim: He was funded by and laundered money for oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

The Reality: Zelenskyy’s TV career was undeniably tied to Kolomoisky’s "1+1" media group. The Pandora Papers showed that some of the offshore entities received payments from Kolomoisky-linked firms. While Zelenskyy’s administration later moved to distance itself from the oligarch (who was eventually stripped of citizenship and arrested), the financial foundations of Zelenskyy’s career were built on this relationship.