Melgen’s and Menéndez’s companion was a Ukrainian actress
By Progreso Weekly staff
The woman who, according to an FBI informant, was “one of the most regular participants in the activities the Doctor [Salomon Melgen] arranges for the Senator” [Bob Menéndez] in the Dominican Republic is a beautiful theater, film and TV actress.
The informant, identified himself only as “Peter Williams,” revealed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that “a Russian national living in Miami named ‘Svetlana B’ […] frequently flew in Melgen’s private jet to parties in the Dominican Republic,” The Miami Herald reported on Monday, Feb. 4.
“This girl is one of the most regular participants in the activities the Doctor arranges for the Senator,” Williams wrote to the FBI. “She has traveled with them in the jet, sailed with them in the yacht, and has repeatedly visited the Doctor’s house.” Melgen is an ophthalmologist.
To be exact, Svitlana Buchyk is Ukrainian. She is an attractive woman, 26, 5 feet 7 inches tall, with long hair and hazel eyes. She identifies herself as “of mixed ethnicity” though she does not describe her roots.
According to information obtained by Progreso Weekly, Svitlana Buchyk was born in Kolomya, in the Ivano-Frankovsk region of Ukraine. Her name is spelled that way in Ukrainian and “Svetlana Buchik” in Russian, which tends to create confusion.
Buchyk was educated at the local Polytechnic School. When she was 15, her parents moved with her and her two brothers to Spain, looking for a better life. They settled in Barcelona, where she learned Spanish and Catalan.
In Barcelona, she studied acting at the Estudi Nancy Tunon and appeared on four television series, four theater plays and five movies. Her professional curriculum indicates that, in addition to her native Ukrainian, she speaks Russian and English.
Her list of athletic skills includes volleyball, horse riding, bicycling, motorcycling, skeet shooting, ice skating and swimming. To relax, she practices yoga.
After moving to the United States, she assumed the name Lana Buchyk. In New York City, she studied at the Lee Strasberg Film Institute in 2011 and the Actors’ Green Room in 2012. She is currently living in New York City, working as an actress and model. She recently finished an independent movie titled “Joe.”
According to a Miami Herald report on Feb. 4, in 2010 Buchyk was involved in a vehicular accident in Coral Gables. The car belonged to Dr. Melgen’s wife and Buchyk gave police the Melgens’ address as her own.
Interviewed briefly this week by a Herald reporter, Buchyk refused to talk about the allegations that Melgen hired prostitutes for Menéndez during the senator’s visits to the Dominican Republic. She admitted that she had worked for Melgen in the past but did not say what kind of work she performed.
Melgen “treated me well,” she said. “He had money. He was very generous. He was always with his family. There is nothing else I can say.”
