Fact Check – Money magazine does not publish the cover of Ukraine’s Zelensky on a horse made of cash – Reuters.com

Money magazine did not publish a cover depicting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a horse made of cash.

An image circulating online showing the cover has been digitally altered. Someone has taken a Money cover from 2016 showing comedian John Oliver, added Zelensky’s face and included banners: “Comedians and ‘Democracy’ Crusaders” and “Learn How to Launder American Taxpayer Dollars and Cookholding”. [sic] With Klaus Schwab.”

One user shared the screenshot on Twitter, saying: “The US magazine Money called Zelensky the “King of Western Corruption”. Which, of course, does not prevent the EU from considering Ukraine as a democratic country” (,

Other examples of image shared online can be found (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here) and (here).

A spokesperson for Money confirmed that it had never published the Zelensky cover, which does not appear anywhere on the magazine’s website or its social media accounts (), (www.facebook.com/MoneyMagazine). Its website shows the original John Oliver cover (archive.ph/Hynwb).

A closer examination of the edited image shows the handle of an Instagram account (@fjbusa) in the corner. The account, which posted the picture on June 23 (here), lists memes, comedy and “satire/parody” in its description (archive.ph/wip/zhGKd).

Reuters has previously addressed digitally altered front pages that deceive users online (here), (here).

Decision

Changed. Money magazine did not publish a cover in June 2022 featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a horse made of money. This image is a proven version of a 2016 cover featuring comedian John Oliver.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.

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