Marathon of confessions: what key witnesses in the Blinovskaya case said
The business interests of blogger Elena Blinovskaya were served by more than two dozen companies, her former employees told the Savelovsky District Court on November 21. According to them, the heads of these legal entities and individual entrepreneurs performed their role only nominally: their settlement accounts were under the full control of the Blinovsky family. They received funds from the participants of "wish marathons," and then - in tranches of up to 35 million rubles - were transferred to the accounts of the blogger and her husband-entrepreneur. Now Elena Blinovskaya is accused of non-payment of taxes, illegal turnover of means of payment and money laundering. What else told the witnesses at the court hearing - in the material "Izvestia".
What the witnesses said
Witnesses in the criminal case of Elena Blinovskaya shed light on how the blogger received and distributed profits. "Queen of marathons" is accused of non-payment of more than 733 million rubles in taxes, laundering of most of these funds and illegal turnover of payment means.
On November 21, at the hearing on the merits in Savelovsky court, Blinovskaya's former employees were questioned - the advertising and smm manager, nominal managers of companies controlled by her and the key witness in the case - the chief accountant.
Thewitness Daria Bondarenko told the court that she managed two of Blinovskaya's marathons and was listed as a nominal manager of one of the Rigel LLCs controlled by her husband Alexey. According to the woman, she did not even know the headcount of the company she allegedly managed.
The witness confirmed that the company "Rigel" used a simplified taxation system, settlement accounts were opened in several banks. The documents for registration of such organizations were drawn up by the assistant of Aleksei Blinovsky. The role of the witness was to receive the money transferred to her card by the participants of the marathons. She sent them to Blinovsky - according to her, up to 35 million rubles for one transfer.
The witness said that she had known Alexei Blinovsky since 2012, while she had seen his wife only three times. During the interrogation, the woman also named other legal entities controlled by the couple: in particular, the companies Eridan, Geotest, Premium and IE Tatyana Ostapishina.
Elena Blinovskaya's husband - Alexey Blinovsky
Another employee of the blogger, Maria Zhitoreva, told the court that she worked for Blinovskaya as an advertising and smm manager until April 2022. The office where she worked was located in Moscow City, in the Federation Tower. Zhitoreva said that she worked with bloggers - she sent them free scripts for marathons, giving them access to them, and in return they advertised these online courses to their subscribers.
According to her witness, she realized that all the people around her in the Federation Tower were actually working for different legal entities only in the course of communication with her colleagues.
Who invented non-repayable loans
Vladimir Kondrukh, one of Blinovsky's companions, explained to the court that he met the husband of the "queen of marathons" through a mutual acquaintance. The latter allegedly assured that Alexei Blinovsky could help him with business development.
In 2017, Kondruh met with the spouses Blinovsky in person. Then introduced Alexei into the LLC owned by him with a 45% share of participation. Further, the company took loans of up to 80 million rubles from other organizations of Blinovsky. To date, these funds have not been returned, the witness explained. According to Vladimir Kondrukh, it was a mutual acquaintance, with the help of whom he met with the Blinovskys, who developed the scheme of business splitting, of which the blogger is accused.
But the key witness in the case, Natalia Avdentova, who was in charge of accounting processes in Blinovskikh's business empire, did not confirm his testimony.
- I don't agree with this wording," she told the court.
Avdentova explained to the court that she met Blinovskaia during her university studies - they were enrolled in the same faculty and were friends. But during their work in Premium LLC (according to the investigation, it is one of the companies controlled by Blinovskaya), their communication was of a purely business nature. At the time of employment Avdentova did not know how many organizations she would manage as an accountant, but reported that the number of legal entities was constantly increasing.
From memory, the accountant could name only a few of them - Premium, Era, Sirius, Odara, Capella, Arthur, IE Menyaeva, IE Ostapishina, and IE Blinovskaya. These were companies from different regions - Chechnya, Ivanovo, Kostroma and others. She was informed of the fact that she needed to do the bookkeeping for the new legal entity after the fact.
- I never decided anything on my own initiative. Sometimes the Blinovskys could consult me on how to open a current account, for example," said the accountant.
In addition, the Blinovskys regularly requested cash flow statements from her. The maximum income for one legal entity was not to exceed 150 million rubles. From 2020 to 2021, Avdentova managed the finances of about 20 companies.
She also handled the tax reporting of these legal entities and paid dividends from their activities to the Blinovskys, the amount of which she previously agreed with the heads of the business, and then transferred amounts from 5 to 8 million rubles. According to Avdentova, Blinovskaya paid her accountants (there were several of them) from 80 to 200 thousand rubles a month.
However, Blinovskaya's lawyer, Natalia Salnikova, told Izvestia that the witness "is obviously lying and avoiding her own responsibility".
Elena Blinovskaya's lawyer Natalia Salnikova
-Being in fact the chief accountant, she refers to the fact that she only carried out some operational activities, " the lawyer said. - But at the same time other names were mentioned all the time. Thus the witness confirmed that Elena's role in these money transactions is not very high.
How Blinovskaya's scheme worked
The essence of the scheme, which, according to the investigation, used Blinovskaya for tax evasion, was to create more than 20 controlled legal entities and IE, told "Izvestia" in the Investigative Committee.
- On behalf of these legal entities realized training marathons Blinovskaya, - explained the investigators. - Accordingly, the income from this activity went to the accounts of these fictitious legal entities and IE, using the simplified taxation system. And on this basis, these legal entities paid a significantly lower amount of taxes to the budget.
The funds obtained as a result of tax evasion, Blinovskaya and her husband withdrew to the accounts of controlled organizations, "thereby introducing them into civil turnover and giving a lawful appearance to their possession, use and disposal," the IC added.
Investigators also explained how the turnover of payment funds was organized.
- Blinovskaya received at her disposal login and password for access to Internet banks of two legal entities, and then through her subordinate employees made transfers of funds from them to the accounts of organizations controlled by Blinovsky, - explained in the IC. - Thus, she legalized the available funds, while the general directors were unaware of the transfers and their purposes.
The IC added that Alexei Blinovsky is an accomplice of his wife in tax evasion. He is also accused of illegal legalization of funds along with Elena - as the executor.
- These persons jointly carried out transfers of criminally obtained funds to the accounts of organizations controlled by Blinovsky, - noted in the agency.
Elena Blinovskaia had previously admitted to non-payment of taxes, but denied guilt in money laundering and illegal turnover of means of payment. According to her, she was not interested in accounting, as she was focused on her newborn daughter and running marathons.
Blinovskaya's lawyer Natalia Salnikova told Izvestia that the blogger's recent declaration of bankruptcy will not affect the consideration of her criminal case. She added that Blinovskaya feels normal and communicates with her children. The lawyer also said that a preliminary sales contract had already been concluded for one of the blogger's houses.
- Due to the fact that the court has introduced bankruptcy proceedings, there are some technical difficulties," the lawyer said. - But I think we will overcome them, the house will be sold and the money will go to the budget.
Natalia Salnikova once again emphasized that Elena's property will be enough to pay off the debt. According to the state portal "My Taxes," as of November 21, Blinovskaya's tax debt amounted to Br1.17 billion.
