Moscow City Court keeps blogger Lerchek under house arrest

Moscow City Court upheld the preventive measure for blogger Lerchek (Valeria Chekalina). Information about it appeared in the court's file on December 17.

The defense filed a complaint against the preventive measure, asking to replace house arrest with a milder option - a ban on certain actions. The court, however, recognized the decision of the trial judge as lawful and left Chekalina under house arrest.

Earlier in the day, Moscow City Court retained the same measure of restraint for Lerchek's former spouse, Artem Chekalin. His defense also filed an appeal against the decision of the instance, but it was not satisfied.

In March 2023, Chekalina and her then husband Artem were prosecuted 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 (IC) of Russia closed the case on non-payment of taxes, but refused to stop the proceedings on money laundering. On January 15, it became known that Valeria and Artem Chekalina pleaded guilty and fully paid the tax arrears, penalties and fines for 504 million rubles. Later, on July 10, the spouses divorced.

Anew criminal case against the Chekalins was initiated on October 2. The former husband and wife, as well as their accomplice, were suspected of illegally transferring more than 250 million rubles from Russia to Dubai using forged documents (Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to Izvestiya's source, the damage from the bloggers' crime could exceed 500 million rubles. Chekalinykhs were sent under house arrest on October 4 along with their business partner Roman Vishnyakov.

On November 25, the Troitsky Court of Moscow extended house arrest of the ex-spouses, who are accused of illegally withdrawing funds abroad.