Blogger Lerchek is being sued over a "premium course" worth 2 million rubles

The Savelovsky district court of Moscow received a statement of claim for protection of consumer rights against blogger Valeria Chekalina (better known as Lerchek). This was reported on November 26 in the press service of the capital's courts of general jurisdiction.

"The plaintiff indicated that she purchased from the defendant course "Premium program with Valeria Chekalina" worth 2 million rubles", - stated in the Telegram-channel.

According to the plaintiff, the essence of counseling was "idle conversations during a joint tea party" and the involvement of third parties in order to conclude paid contracts.

At the same time as told after the meeting "Izvestia" plaintiff's lawyer Svetlana Fomina, after appealing to the court, the defendant has already voluntarily returned 1 million rubles, but the blogger is evading payment of moral damages and penalties.

"Ideally, they recognize our demands and there are correspondences that recognize the contract terminated on our initiative and return the funds. But further demands are somehow evaded," she said.

Daria Igushina, a lawyer of Chekalinykh Company, in turn said that the plaintiff demands too large an amount of money, while having received services under the contract.

"The service was partially rendered, because in the middle of rendering services, the plaintiff terminated the contract," the lawyer added.

The court hearing is scheduled for December 11, 2024.

On the eve of the court extended house arrest of bloggers Valeria and Artem Chekalin in the case of withdrawal from the Russian Federation over 250 million rubles. The arrest was extended until January 25, 2025.

In October, Telegram channels reported about the Chekalins' violations of the terms of the preventive measure, but the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service denied the information. On October 31, the Chekalins filed three complaints against house arrest.

On October 3, the Russian Interior Ministry reported that the Chekalins and their accomplice are suspected of illegally transferring more than 250 million rubles from Russia to Dubai using forged documents. Izvestiya source said that the damage from the bloggers' activities may exceed 500 million rubles. A new criminal case has been opened against them.

In March 2023, a case was opened against Valeria and her husband for non-payment of taxes in the amount of about 300 million rubles and legalization of more than 130 million rubles obtained by criminal means. At the end of December 2023, the Investigative Committee of Russia closed the case of non-payment of taxes, but refused to stop the proceedings on money laundering. On January 15, it became known that Valeria and Artem Chekaliny pleaded guilty and fully paid the tax arrears, penalties and a fine of 504 million rubles.