“No. 1 rumor? A company linked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reportedly purchased the former mansion of Nazi German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Germany. According to the purchase agreement leaked on the Internet, the company Film Heritage Inc. was acquired in October this year a villa in Bogensee near Berlin for 8 million euros”, wrote the Telegram portal on December 30.
“The news portals also refer to Sabine Mels, a former employee of the real estate agency that manages BIM for movable assets, who published a document confirming that the company Film Heritage Inc. purchased the Bogensee villa,” he writes Telegram.
On December 24, the video entitled “Zelensky bought the infamous Goebbel villa (Bogensee) for 8 million euros” was published for the first time on the YouTube channel “Sabine Mels” with 57 followers. All three of this user’s videos were posted on December 24 and are related to “anti-fascism.”
The person, who calls herself Sabine Mels, claims to be a former employee of BIM (Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH), a real estate management company in the city of Berlin. In the video she says in German that her former BIM colleague sent her a copy of the sales contract for Goebbels’ villa. The mansion was reportedly purchased in October 2023 by someone related to the president of Ukraine offshore-Film Heritage Inc.
BIM confirmed to the BBC that no person called Sabine Mels had ever worked for them.
A native German speaker told Ukrainian fact-checking magazine StopFake that the woman speaks with a distinct Russian accent in the video.
The only social media account on X under the name Sabine Mels has a stolen profile picture. It actually belongs to the American actress Alyssa Gadson. On X, a user named Sabine Mels has previously posted mostly in Arabic, and most of her followers are from India and Arab countries.
So Sabine Mels is a fictitious person and has never worked in BIM.
The copy of the “leaked” sales documents shown in the video is fake. This was confirmed to both the BBC and German publication T-Online by notary Friederike Schulenburg, whose name was used on the forged documents.
The alleged copy of the sales contract has several errors that demonstrate that the document is a fake.
For example, it appears that the transaction was notarized by “Dr. Friederike Schulenburg, lawyer – notary”. Schulenburg actually once worked as a notary at BIM. He is now over 80 years old. According to the German Federal Notary Ordinance, a notary’s mandate expires at the age of 70.
According to Schulenburg, he still works at a law firm, but has not been able to practice as a notary for over ten years. Schulenburg confirmed that it did not make any sales in October.
According to Schulenburg, the alleged sales agreement was put together “relatively clumsily.” For example, it says “Purchase Agreement” (“Kaufvertrag”) on it, but according to him no such title exists. Furthermore, the seal, signature and notation “certified copy” are missing. According to him, the formal design also does not meet the standards.
After the fall of Hitler’s regime, the Bogensee area came under the control of the Soviet Union and the property became a Red Army base. In 1946 it was handed over to the East German communist youth movement. After the fall of the Wall, a training center for social workers was created, the Berlin police used the conference rooms, a nursery was set up, etc.
The building has been empty since 2000 and is still owned by the City of Berlin. Villa Bogensee was not sold to anyone or even put up for sale. This was confirmed by a BIM representative at the BBC.
Local politicians also told T-Online that, given the history of the property, it is unimaginable that any of the buildings on it would be separated and simply sold to private individuals. Furthermore, the Berlin government would have announced it publicly.
The possible sale of the property is being viewed with a critical eye so that it does not fall into the hands of Hitler’s far-right supporters. In 2016, BIM manager Birgit Möhring said that the building has problems with heating and water and that the facade and roof are in poor condition. Möhring called the expenses necessary to restore the property unjustified and suggested demolishing the villa.
On December 30, Xi’s official account at the Russian embassy in South Africa also posted a false statement about Zelenskyi’s alleged purchase of wool. Then similar news appeared on social media and dozens of Russian channels, such as RIA Novosti, Комсомольская правда and Sputnik.
Russia has already produced numerous disinformation campaigns about Zelenskyi’s assets and alleged secret deals. For example, a few weeks ago the false news spread that Zelenskyj had purchased a villa in Florida and obtained American citizenship.
One of Russia’s strategic narratives, directly fueled by the false information about the Goebbels villa, is to associate Zelensky and all of Ukraine with Nazism. The so-called “denazification of Ukraine” is still used by Russia as an excuse to justify the war.
Verdict: false. A fake sales contract spreads the lie that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bought a villa near Berlin that belonged to Hitler’s propaganda minister, Goebbels. It is a completely false story aimed at defaming Zelenskyi and spreading Russia’s strategic narratives in the West.
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2024-01-04 14:40:59
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