Chekalins are suspected of evasion and complicity in tax evasion of an individual (part 2 of article 198, part 5 of article 33, part 2 of article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to the survey, from July 2020 to July 2022, Valeria Chekalina paid taxes as an individual entrepreneur under a simplified system. Such a system provides that income should not exceed 150 million rubles. during this year. According to the UK, Chekalina received much more income “from the provision of services for the implementation of fitness marathons”, but did not want to switch to the general taxation system and pay VAT and personal income tax.
To do this, the blogger arranged for the earnings to go into settlement accounts set up on the intellectual property of her husband and other relatives, the UK said in a statement. Thus, Chekalina, according to investigators, “illegally carried out the splitting of the company and evaded taxes in the amount of more than 300 million rubles.”
The homes of the blogger and her husband were searched. Judging by video from the place of research, the Chekalins live in the elite residential complex “Golden Keys” in the west of Moscow.
In 2020 Chekalina took seventh place in the ranking of the highest-paid Instagram bloggers, which was compiled by Forbes magazine. His earnings were estimated at $0.61 million per year.
