“The situation worsened”: the accounts of another company of blogger Lerchek, accused of financial fraud, were arrested 24.03.2023, 15:10

The marathon saleswoman was one of the first rich people in the blogosphere to be questioned by the IRS and law enforcement. Lerchek is accused of concocting a scheme under which she failed to pay 311 million rubles to the state treasury. The main assistant of her affairs, her husband Artem, flees with her. Later, in addition to tax evasion, another criminal case was opened against the blogger – for money laundering.

The main source of the Chekalin couple’s multimillion-dollar income was social networks, through which they ran marathons and advertised. But during the investigation, the court imposed a ban on media activity – Valeria and Artem cannot use the Internet and communicate. In fact, their expensive devices can now only function as a basic push-button phone to call a taxi or emergency services.

The couple could have pawned gold bars with a total weight of 8 kilograms, which were stored at their home, but the precious metal was seized during the search. The arrest was imposed not only on the bank accounts and property of the Chekalins, but also on the property of their closest relatives. All of this serves as a guarantor of compensation for losses.

The IRS blocked the accounts of Bee Fit, a company through which Lerchek sold her cosmetics and lured customers with drawings of cars and other valuable prizes. Today it became clear that the same fate befell another Chekalina company – LEA LLC, through which she traded in sportswear. The reason was “failure to submit a tax return to the tax authority”. The blogger thus lost her last source of income.

A married couple with three children, who have gotten used to not denying themselves anything in recent years, do not yet understand what they will continue to live on. Artem Chekalin tried to keep a carefree smile on his face while leaving the court, but he complained that he had only 100 thousand rubles in cash left in his pocket, everything else was arrested. That’s enough for popular bloggers to just buy a few groceries. Star lawyer Andrei Aleshkin expressed his belief that the consequences for Chekalin will be tangible.

“We have to admit that the situation for Lerchek is getting worse: it can be seen from the actions of tax and law enforcement authorities. As a rule, the seizure of accounts is associated with preliminary measures: so that the accused cannot withdraw money. In fact, Chekalina could immediately start paying off its debt to the state, in which case it is not worth delaying. But if the property was arrested, it means that Chekalina did not start paying voluntarily, ”quotes Aleshkin KP.

The human rights activist explained that voluntary compensation for harm guarantees closure of the case, but avoiding payment risks criminal liability to the full extent of the law.

According to investigators, Lerchek opened five companies for herself and her relatives to split the multimillion-dollar profits from the marathons while maintaining the ability to pay taxes at a reduced rate. After Chekalina, similar criminal proceedings were initiated against blogger Alexander Mitroshina. According to the same scheme, the girl did not pay 120 million to the state treasury. Law enforcement authorities are also checking the financial affairs of the “marathon queen” Elena Blinovská.