Law enforcement officials again became interested in the activities of bloggers Valeria (Lerchek) and Artem Chekalin in connection with a complaint from a former Ukrainian employee who was not paid. This was reported by the Mash telegram channel.
A former professional employee is alleged to be a programmer who had access to payment for the Chekalin marathons. Apparently, it was he who spoke in detail about the payment plan for the Dubai Marathons and also named the participants through whom the money passed. Among other things, he named the co-owner of the cosmetics company Letik Makeup. Roman Vishniac.
“It was Vishniac who helped the Chekalins withdraw money from marathons in the United Arab Emirates and transfer it to offshore accounts. I did it together with Artyom when he came to see him in Dubai. It all continued until the couple divorced in the spring of 2024. During this time, Vishniac, who has dual citizenship (the second is American), helped the former spouses withdraw about a million dollars through Dubai this year and 250 million rubles two years ago.” – says the publication.
Additionally, another citizen of Ukraine, whose name has not been revealed, is allegedly involved in the plot.
As a result of a new audit, it was discovered that the Chekalins had made transfers abroad and had not paid taxes. For this they face up to 10 years in prison.
According to the Shot telegram channel, the key figure in the new criminal case is Artem Chekalin. It is carried out under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (conducting currency transactions to transfer funds to non-resident accounts using forged documents). The income of the BI FIT company, through which payments for marathons in Dubai were made, amounted to about 3 billion rubles a year.
As reported EADailyLast December, investigators closed the case against Lerchek for tax evasion, which began in February 2023. The blogger and her husband repaid about 500 million rubles. debts with the tax authorities
The investigation alleged that Lerchek registered an individual entrepreneur and applied a simplified tax system with a permissible income limit of 150 million rubles. per year. But for July 2020 – July 2022 he received income. “in a significantly larger quantity” of doing fitness marathons. The investigation committee then stressed that Chekalina divided the business and brought in her husband and other relatives as accomplices.
In March of this year, the Investigative Commission closed the second case against Lerchek for money laundering “due to lack of corpus delicti” and recognized his right to rehabilitation.
In May of this year, the Chekalins divorced and divided all their assets.
It later emerged that a new criminal case had been opened against the Chekalins for carrying out currency transfer operations to non-resident accounts using forged documents. There has not yet been official confirmation of this information.
