The case of blogger Blinovskaya. How the "queen of marathons" evaded taxes and laundered millions

In February, the prosecutor requested six years in prison for blogger Yelena Blinovskaya in the case of non-payment of taxes, money legalization and illegal circulation of means of payment. The prosecution also requested a fine of 1.5 million rubles and a ban on engaging in commercial activities for five years. In addition, the court is asked to confiscate the property of the defendant and her husband, which was under arrest during the preliminary investigation. At the same time, the amount of the claim was reduced from 918 million to 587 million rubles of additional tax, as it was partially repaid. Currently Blinovskaya is in pre-trial detention center, the arrest has been extended until May 2, 2025. Details of the case of the businesswoman - in the material "Izvestia".

What is accused Blinovskaya

-Elena Blinovskaya was detained on April 27, 2023 on suspicion of non-payment of taxes. The blogger was caught trying to flee the country near the border with Belarus, she had airline tickets to Tashkent. The next day she was sent under house arrest, and in January 2024 she was transferred to a pre-trial detention center amid violations of detention conditions and after the filing of new charges. According to the investigation, the businesswoman, with the mediation of her husband Alexei Blinovsky, evaded taxes on income of more than 900 million rubles, legalized part of this money in the amount of 716 million rubles, as well as engaged in illegal turnover of payment means.

- According to the investigation, the creator of online marathons received income from the sale of training courses on personal growth in social networks, using a simplified taxation system. In order not to pay higher taxes under the general taxation system, the blogger split the business, using 18 legal entities and three sole proprietorships with which she concluded license agreements. For 10 thousand rubles, she gave them the right to use the results of her intellectual activity, and the firms, in turn, transferred her a percentage of the proceeds.

- The total amount of Blinovskaya's debt to the state as of August 13, 2024 was 1.22 billion rubles. As Ivan Morozov, the businesswoman's arbitration lawyer, explained to Izvestia, the debt was growing daily by about 400 thousand rubles due to penalties. On October 2, Blinovskaya's lawyers closed her personal income tax debt to the tax authorities in the amount of over 320 million rubles. Later, on November 29, Blinovskaya repaid the entire debt of 1 billion 173 million rubles. As of February 13, 2025, the amount of debt to the state on additional tax is 587 million rubles.

- According to the capital prosecutor's office, all the property of Blinovskaya and her close relatives has been seized. Its total value exceeds 650.5 million rubles. At the same time, in April, the lawyer of the "queen of marathons" Natalia Salnikova claimed that the property of the blogger's family was on sale to pay off tax debts

Who else is on trial

-Alexei Blinovskaya, the husband of Elena Blinovskaya, was charged under articles on taxevasion on a large scale and money laundering. On April 13, 2024, he signed a contract to serve in the Russian Armed Forces and left for the Special Military Operation (SMO) zone. At the same time, in June 2024, Blinovsky was put on a federal wanted list. According to the source TASS, the reason for this was the man's failure to appear before the investigator. At the same time, if Blinovskaya herself has already confessed to fraudulent tax schemes, her husband categorically denies guilt.

What is known about Elena Blinovskaya

- Elena Blinovskaya (maiden name Ostanina) was born on August 25, 1981 in the village of Oparino, Kirov region. Later she moved with her family to Yaroslavl, where in 1998 she studied economics at the P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University. P.G. Demidov. In 2007 she married businessman Alexei Blinovsky, the couple has four children.

- Blinovsky's first business - a salon "Wedding commotion" - was helped by her husband. According to the media, she was bored with the business, and the salon was sold, and Blinovskaya devoted herself to motherhood. In maternity Elena became interested in psychology and personal growth. According to StarHit, Blinovskaya studied with coaches with ambiguous reputations: Anthony Robbins, John Kehoe, John Gray, Liz Bourbeau, Eckhart Tolle. Also, according to Blinovskaya, she completed a retraining program at Lomonosov Moscow State University in "Practical Psychology of Personality in the Sphere of Interpersonal Communication and Business". She also claims to have received nine other advanced training and retraining diplomas, but she did not disclose details about where and when she received her education.

- Blinovskaya began practicing "wish marathons" first among her friends, and she launched her first paid course in 2015: a package with personal mentoring cost 2,000 rubles. After she moved to Moscow in 2018, "Marathon of Wishes" became a trademark." The audience continued to grow, and the cost of participation started from 4.5 thousand rubles and reached up to 300 thousand for VIP-format. In addition to the "Wish Marathon" Blinovskaya had other trainings: "Become and get" (6 thousand rubles), "Financial Marathon" (5 thousand rubles), "Destination" (7 thousand rubles), "About Relationships" (10 thousand rubles).

- At the end of 2021 Blinovskaya gave a scandalous interview with journalist Ksenia Sobchak, during which she dodged many answers, and after the question about income she threw a tantrum with threats. The video quickly went viral on social networks, with more than 9.5 million people watching it in the first 24 hours. The media repeatedly made allegations that the instamarathoner's financial problems began after this interview.

Criminal case against Blinovskaya

- On August 1, 2024, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office approved the indictment of the investigation in the criminal case against Blinovskaya. She is charged under three criminal articles: tax evasion (part 2 of article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), legalization (laundering) of money acquired by criminal means (point "b" part 4 of article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), illegal turnover of means of payment (part 1 of article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to Vladimir Kuznetsov, chairman of the All-Russian Union of Mediators, the blogger could face seven years in prison for the last two articles, and three more for non-payment of taxes. Thus, the total sentence may reach 17 years.

- At the same time, as lawyer Vitaly Shakin explained to Izvestia, the defendants may be released from criminal liability if they exercise their right to pay off the arrears, fines and penalties, as Valeria Chekalina and her now ex-husband Artem did. Otherwise, he said, in reality, we may be talking about five or six years in a penal colony. He also did not rule out that the court could limit itself to a suspended sentence.