The 10 foreign passports found in the search of the Cekalins’ mansion belong to their families. This was stated on social networks by Artem Chekalin, the husband of blogger Valeria Chekalina (Lerchek).
According to Chekalin, he, his wife and three children each have two documents. He also told us where the 8 kilos of gold bullion in their house came from.
“From what we’ve seen, about ten passports: we have five family members, they each have two international passports – that’s ten passports. About eight kilos of gold – it was in the bank where they froze my money and gave me gold instead of dollars, ”the man said.
In addition, the bloggers told the newspaper Izvestia that they aim to solve the problems related to criminal cases as soon as possible.
“The tax authorities calculated some kind of fine for us, opened a criminal case. We will deal with all this as soon as possible, and we will pay for everything. “We hope that all this will end,” said Artem Chekalin.
On March 7, Valeria Chekalina was accused by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation of tax evasion, her husband was accused of complicity in it. According to the UK, the blogger engaged in activities under a simplified taxation scheme as an individual entrepreneur (IP) with income of up to 150 million rubles, but actually “earned more”. The security forces estimated the damage to the state from the actions of the Chekalins at more than 311 million rubles.
During their meeting with Izvestia, the Chekalins also stated that they do not think of leaving Russia, that they love the country and support the army.
“Artem and I always live here in Moscow, we want to develop here, build a house. We continued to build the house as many fled. We love our country, we support our men,” he said.
Now the Cekalins are under house arrest. Lerchek has been running a fitness blog since 2018; Nearly 10 million people subscribed to this blog in August 2021. Forbes estimated his annual income at 600 thousand dollars (about 45 million rubles).
Telegram channel 112 reported that not only her husband Artem, but also other family members are suspected of complicity in tax evasion, according to the source. Chekalina’s mother, Artem Chekalin’s brother and wife, and bloggers partner Roman Vishnyakov may have been involved in the crime.
Officially, the UK announced that in order not to switch to the general taxation system, not to pay VAT and personal income tax, the blogger included her husband Artem Chekalin and other relatives as accomplices – they opened individual entrepreneurs, after which they received money in their accounts. One of the fitness marathons that exceeded the limit set for Lerchek. The investigation believes that Chekalina “illegally carried out the division of business and avoided paying taxes of more than 300 million rubles.”
Literally a few hours before the search and launch of a criminal case, Chekalina said on social networks that she visited the office of the Federal Tax Service to issue an electronic signature before leaving Russia.
“It’s like I went to the mall for coffee,” the blogger said. He also noted how quickly and efficiently the Federal Tax Service works.