Against the blogger, the author of the "Marathon of Desires" Elena Blinovskaya, a case was opened on tax evasion and money laundering. She was detained while trying to cross the border in a rented car, according to the Investigative Committee.
According to the investigation, from 2019 to 2021, Blinovskaya did not pay taxes in the amount of more than 918 million rubles. She is suspected of committing crimes under Part 2 of Art. 198, paragraph "b" part 4 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (evasion of an individual from paying taxes on an especially large scale, legalization (laundering) of money on an especially large scale or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime).
During the arrest, it turned out that the blogger had plane tickets to another country. According to a source from the Shot Telegram channel, Blinovskaya was detained at about 4 am at the Krasnaya Gorka checkpoint in the Smolensk region, on the border with Belarus. She had tickets with her to Tashkent, where she allegedly planned to fly from Moscow at 9 am, but they were bought only to deceive the security forces. Now Blinovskaya's house and office are being searched and investigative actions are being carried out, she herself is under interrogation in the Investigative Committee.
The investigation claims that Blinovskaya, while providing information services, uses the scheme of "splitting" the business and underestimates the income received. As a result, for the period 2019-2021, she did not pay value added tax and personal income tax for a total amount of over 918 million rubles. She legalized them “by making financial transactions” in order to legally use the funds.
Earlier, when the UK became interested in other bloggers, the media claimed that the tax authorities were interested in the income of Blinovskaya, Dmitry Portnyagin, the founder of the Transformer business club, and blogger Oksana Samoilova. It was also claimed that the Federal Tax Service will begin a large-scale audit of Internet stars.
In March, blogger Alexandra Mitroshina was charged with tax evasion for 120 million rubles. According to investigators, Mitroshina, as an individual entrepreneur, received income from educational courses in excess of the limit allowed for the application of the simplified taxation system. In order to hide income, she received some of them for other IPs affiliated and controlled by her, according to the UK. Mitroshina herself previously claimed that she "regularly pays all taxes."
On March 16, a criminal case on money laundering was opened against blogger Valeria Chekalina and her husband.
