The blogger's ex-husband, Lercek, announced a lack of funds to pay taxes.

The ex-husband of blogger Valeria Chekalina, who speaks under the pseudonym Lerchek, Artyom Chekalin, said during the court session that he did not have enough funds to pay taxes. This was announced on December 22 by a correspondent of Izvestia from the hall of the Gagarin District Court of Moscow.

"At the moment, I don't have enough personal funds to pay off the new taxes, so I need to sell a house with a plot of land in the Istra city district. I am asking the court to allow me to make this transaction," Chekalin explained.

He said that he had not checked for violations of UAE law when working with the currency. According to him, the idea of opening a company there was suggested by their former business partner Roman Vishnyak.

"In order to enter the international market, the E-FITNESS-FZO company was opened in the UAE, which was engaged in the implementation of the marathon not only in Russia, but also around the world. Vishnyak has repeatedly written to me that such activities are one hundred percent legal," Chekalin said.

Prior to that, on December 1, Artem Chekalin stated in court that he was guilty of committing a tax crime, but had nothing to do with the withdrawal of funds from Russia. He admitted that he was guilty of a tax crime and repented of what he had done, but did not admit guilt in withdrawing funds from the Russian Federation. In addition, he did not agree with the statement that the crime was committed by an organized group.

The criminal case against Chekalina and her ex-husband Artyom was opened in October last year. The ex-husband and wife, as well as their accomplice, were suspected of illegally withdrawing more than 250 million rubles from Russia to Dubai using forged documents (art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

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