The prosecutor has requested a six-year suspended sentence and a fine of more than 1.2 billion rubles for blogger Valeria Chekalina, known as Lerchek, reports infohub.kz.
The criminal case is being heard in a closed session at the Gagarinsky District Court in Moscow. During closing arguments, the state prosecution asked the court to sentence Chekalina to six years of imprisonment, suspended, and to impose a fine of 1 billion 221 million rubles (approximately 7.41 billion tenge). In addition, the prosecutor demanded that she be banned from administering websites. These demands are reported by RIA Novosti, citing a participant in the proceedings.
Valeria Chekalina does not admit guilt in the case of transferring funds to the UAE using forged documents.
In 2023, a criminal case was opened against bloggers Valeria and Artyom Chekalin, and they were banned from using the internet: they were accused of tax evasion and money laundering. In 2024, a new criminal case was opened against Valeria and her ex-husband Artyom, and the blogger was placed under house arrest.
Last autumn, it was reported that the internet celebrity was expecting a child. In March 2026, Valeria's partner Louis Squicciarini said that after giving birth she was diagnosed with cancer. Following this, Chekalina's lawyers stated that she could not move independently and filed a motion to change her preventive measure and suspend the court proceedings.
Valeria Chekalina also filed a complaint with the Russian Investigative Committee, requesting that the actions of law enforcement officers in her case be reviewed.
In March 2026, Chekalina paid off her multi-million debt to the Federal Tax Service. At the hearing on March 17, her representative Maxim Kurnosov handed the court a document on the transfer of 176 million rubles (over 1 billion tenge) to her tax account. In the same month, the court terminated the bankruptcy proceedings against her.
In April, Lerchek's ex-husband Artyom Chekalin was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for transferring more than 250 million rubles to accounts in the UAE.