Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky let go of his businesses but his earnings doubled thanks to royalties and property.
The president and the first lady declared Hr 28.6 million (a little over $1 million by current exchange rate) in income in 2019, according to a declaration of assets filed on May 30.
A year earlier, before he took office, Zelensky declared Hr 14.6 million in shared income with his wife earned in 2018.
A meager part of Zelensky’s income last year was his state salary which amounted to a total of Hr 208,787 ($7,770).
Most earnings came from the couple’s business, bonds, property, and royalties.
Companies
Zelensky’s accrued salary at Kvartal 95 amounted to a little under Hr 3.8 million ($140,000). In addition, he earned some Hr 1 million ($39,000) from his business activities. His declaration, however, doesn’t specify the period of time.
Zelensky, a successful television producer and actor in the past, stopped running his vast business empire—a network of filmmaking companies, animation and comedy production studios, event management enterprise—in May 2019 when he was sworn-in as the president of Ukraine.
He sold his corporate rights in 12 companies to one of his long-time business partners Serhiy Shefir, who is currently the presidential first aide, for Hr 246,144 ($9,100). Among them, Studio Kvartal 95, Kinokvartal, Kvartal Concert, as well as a fish processing company Zelari Fish.
Zelensky also sold his share in a Cyprus-registered Green Family Ltd. which owned three filmmaking companies in Russia. During the election campaign, he came under fire after Ukrainian investigative journalists discovered those firms and promised to give them up.
Moreover, he is no longer a shareholder in Italy-registered San Tommaso S.R.L, Belize-registered Film Heritage Inc, Cyprus-registered Aldorante Limited and Vilhar Holdings Limited.
However, his wife Olena Zelenska still holds her share in three of those companies.
The first lady’s salary from Kvartal 95 increased by Hr 1 million last year compared to 2018 and amounted to Hr 2.2 million ($81,800).
Royalties
Despite letting go of corporate rights, Zelensky still holds property rights on a number of trademarks. And they proved to be lucrative last year.
In 2019, he earned a whopping Hr 5 million ($188,000) from royalties.
In the previous year, he declared almost no income from royalties. The change might be explained by the fact that he had two trademarks registered in his name last year, according to the presidential press service.
Vecherniy Kvartal (Evening Quarter) and Rozsmeshi Komika (Made a Comedian Laugh) are the titles of popular stand-up comedy TV shows that Zelensky hosted up until becoming the president. The total value of the two trademarks was reportedly estimated at over Hr 60 million ($2.2 million).
Property
The couple’s income from renting their property grew by five times in one year to a total of Hr 5,557,532 ($207,000).
Some Hr 3.2 million of this sum came from subletting an apartment in the United Kingdom, and the rest came from renting some unspecified premises to Kvartal 95. In addition, they sold an apartment in Kyiv for Hr 4,423,000 ($164,700).
Besides that, the couple still owns property worth $4 million. It includes four large apartments in Kyiv, a house with a land plot in Ivankovychi village of Kyiv Oblast, a 413-square-meter villa in Italy, and a flat in Yalta, a resort city in the Russian-occupied Crimea, bought in 2013, before the illegal annexation of the peninsula.
Zelensky and his wife also invested in five rooms in a hotel in Georgia currently under construction.
