Tax disputes: why blogger Mitroshina was placed under house arrest

Blogger Alexandra Mitroshina, who is accused of money laundering, will spend the next two months under house arrest. This decision was made on March 10 by the Chertanovsky district Court of Moscow. According to investigators, in order to legalize illegal income, she bought an apartment in the center of the capital for 60 million rubles. Now the blogger has sold all her real estate in Russia to pay off debts to the tax service, Mitroshina's defense said. However, this did not save her from the criminal case: the investigation believes that the purchase itself is a crime, since it was made with illegal income. What Mitroshina said in court, and what prospects this case has, is in the Izvestia article.

Trial and house arrest

The Chertanovsky district Court of Moscow did not send the famous blogger Alexander Mitroshin to jail in the case of money laundering. The investigation insisted on arrest, but the court agreed with the position of the prosecutors, who stated that house arrest would be an adequate measure of restraint for the accused.

The court imposed a ban on Mitroshina from communicating with the witnesses involved in the case, with the exception of close relatives, as well as on communications and the Internet. The blogger's defense said it would not appeal the court's decision.

Alexandra Mitroshina was detained on March 7 at Sochi airport, where she arrived from Dubai, and charged with laundering 127 million rubles. According to investigators, having debts to the tax service for the same amount, Mitroshina bought an elite apartment on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street in the center of Moscow in 2021 in order to legitimize the arrears, that is, to legalize them.

The investigation became interested in this "bad apartment" only now, four years after the purchase, because it established that it was allegedly purchased with the same unpaid taxes at that time.

According to investigators, Mitroshina, like the "queen of marathons" Elena Blinovskaya, divided her business between different sole proprietors. A source in law enforcement agencies told Izvestia that Mitroshina had three of them, and she directly transferred money from the sale of courses to their accounts. Investigators believe that she did this intentionally, "in order to conceal part of her income and obtain unjustified tax savings due to a special simplified taxation regime."

The first check on the blogger took place a year ago, in March 2023, when the tax service saw that the income from the sale of courses exceeded the limit provided for the simplified taxation system used by the blogger. At the same time, she did not switch to the general system, thereby avoiding full payment of VAT and personal income tax.

How much taxes did Mitroshina pay

Following the inspection, the first criminal case was initiated — on tax evasion of 127 million rubles. Then, in 2023, after receiving an act from the tax service, the blogger urgently sold the apartment on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, and at the same time, "all her real estate in Russia," Mikhail Mushailov, Mitroshina's lawyer, told Izvestia. In particular, an apartment purchased a year earlier in the Capital Towers Moscow City residential complex worth 45 million rubles.

She used the proceeds from the sale to pay tax arrears, which, together with penalties and fines, amounted to more than 213 million rubles. After that, in July 2023, the criminal case against Mitroshina was terminated in connection with compensation for damages. Since that moment, the blogger has never evaded paying taxes and in total for the period from January 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, she paid 666 million rubles to the budget, Mikhail Mushailov said.

This exemplary tax behavior, which Mitroshina has demonstrated over the past two years, has not saved her from a new criminal case, which was opened in January this year and on a much more serious charge of money laundering.

Mitroshina's defense does not confirm or deny this basic thesis of the legalization accusation.

— At the moment, we cannot say for sure with what money the apartment was bought, because the money earned by honest work and the money saved on non—payment of taxes were mixed into the total mass, - said the lawyer.

The arrears, for which the blogger had to sell his property, were formed, according to the lawyer, because Mitroshina "stumbled in terms of calculating and disposing of her funds."

Problems with accounting

At the trial, Mitroshina stated that she "did not know that buying an apartment was legalization," but she did not argue with this definition.

— I admit my mistakes, I'm not going to hinder the investigation, I won't allow this in the future, — the blogger promised.

Mitroshina confessed: she admits that she bought an apartment, including with the money she saved on taxes. According to her, the tax evasion itself occurred due to the fact that she "does not have special knowledge in the field of accounting."

At the trial of the preventive measure, the investigator stressed that money laundering is a serious crime. He insisted on the blogger's arrest and pointed out to the court that she had already escaped from the investigation once and was put on the wanted list.

"She does not live in Moscow at the place of registration, she lived in Dubai, UAE for a long period, has extensive connections there and can hide," the investigator said, addressing the court. — There is a financial opportunity for this.

Mitroshina herself told the investigation during the interrogation that she had no idea that she was on the federal wanted list and did not know about the new case against her either, which is why she flew to Russia, the source said. She bought plane tickets on March 6 and calmly flew to Sochi for a vacation, unaware that she might be detained at the airport. The lawyers were not notified about the case either, Mikhail Mushailov confirmed.

He said that in recent years, his client "systematically flew to Russia — to Sochi, to St. Petersburg." She did not avoid coming to her homeland, even when a money laundering investigation began against her, because she did not know about it. The inspection began on December 26, 2024, and the blogger arrived in Moscow on December 12 of the same year and stayed in the capital until the end of the New Year holidays, the lawyer said.

"And she came back later: her family and her husband's family live in Russia," the lawyer said.

The court decided to send the blogger under house arrest until April 24. Mitroshina will be kept in the apartment of her husband's parents (she got married a few weeks ago, at the end of February), the lawyer said.

He added that Mitroshina's staff had not yet been questioned.

— Of course, I assume that counterparties, accountants, lawyers, and so on will be questioned, — said the lawyer.

Is Mitroshina's accusation similar to Blinovskaya's case

The lawyers interviewed by Izvestia differed in their assessment of the crime attributed to Mitroshina.

The criminal article on legalization is now formulated in such a way that the consequences of any crime involving money can be summed up under it, says Anastasia Rastorgueva, a lawyer and leader of the legal department of the Skolkovo Women's Association.

"By receiving money illegally, for example, without paying extra taxes, they are being spent on something," she said. — And if you can prove the waste, that's legalization. The larger the purchase, the more noticeable the traces.

The law exempts from criminal liability for non-payment of taxes a person who has committed a crime for the first time and repaid a debt. According to this logic, related criminal cases should also not be initiated or should be terminated, the lawyer believes.

"But so far it doesn't follow directly from the law, and here it is — the Mitroshina case," she said.

According to the law, criminal liability does not occur if the tax is paid, but at the same time, the company's activities must be legal, and the unpaid tax must remain within the company, criminal defense lawyer Tatiana Pashkevich told Izvestia.

— Here it turns out that the tax was not only not paid, but also legalized under the guise of acquiring real estate, — she said. — And the responsibility for these crimes is already tougher — up to seven years in prison.

The lawyers agreed that Mitroshina's case in many ways resembles Blinovskaya's case (she was sentenced to five years in prison on March 3 of this year). Both were initially accused of tax evasion. But Mitroshina recognized the debt, repaid it, and was released from criminal liability for this crime, while Blinovskaya was unable to repay the debt in full. The court released her from this charge after the statute of limitations expired.

Legalization was "added" to both bloggers: Blinovskaya — during the tax investigation, and Mitroshina — after its termination.

— That is, the "procedure" is different, the essence is the same, — said Anastasia Rastorgueva. — I believe that Alexandra's punishment should be less than Elena's — there is only one crime, and the amount is significantly less.

And Tatiana Pashkevich added that the investigators "weigh down" the charges with legalization, including in order to bring responsibility. Otherwise, all those who evade taxes would simply compensate for their damage, she concluded.