Valeria and Artem Chekalin detained for 48 hours
Bloggers Valeria and Artem Chekalin have been detained for 48 hours: they had previously become defendants in a case involving the transfer of funds to non-resident accounts using forged documents. This was reported by the Kommersant publication.
The bloggers are suspected of transferring 250 million rubles to the accounts of a company in Dubai. Roman Vishnyak, co-founder of a cosmetics company, was also detained with them.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, Vishnyak suggested that Valeria and Artem organize marathons and took on all organizational activities. He received about 25% of the income from this. In addition to the marathons, Vishnyak and the Chekalins also opened a company selling cosmetics and food together. Vishnyak himself soon left for the United States and received dividends. Later, when the income from their activities grew, they decided to accept money directly through Dubai Banks: payment was made using a link, which investigators regard as a transfer of money using fictitious documents. As previously specified, the statement was written by one of the former employees.
Initially, it was planned to detain only Vishnyak, but after a confrontation and interrogation, the Chekalins were also detained.
Last year, Valeria and Artem were accused of tax evasion on a large scale and money laundering. Earlier this year, the Chekalins paid off their half-billion-ruble tax debt, and the criminal case against them was soon dropped. During the trial, the couple's relationship deteriorated, and they divorced.