One of the investigators did not return jewelry worth 14.4 million rubles to blogger Lerchek, which...

One of the investigators did not return jewelry worth 14.4 million rubles to blogger Lerchek, which he had seized during a search

A criminal case has been opened against him for abuse of official powers, Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk said.

The convicted blogger’s lawyer, Viktor Dugin, told TASS that the jewelry was seized from Lerchek during a search at the beginning of the investigation and was never added to the case as physical evidence. According to the defense lawyer, after the investigation was completed he asked for the items to be returned, but was refused.

🔵Valeria Chekalina (blogger Lerchek), who became widely known thanks to fitness marathons, in 2023, together with her former husband Artem Chekalin, became a defendant in a criminal case over tax evasion amounting to 311 million rubles; the case was closed after debts and fines totaling more than 500 million rubles were paid in full. In the fall of 2024, a new criminal case was opened against the former spouses: they were accused of illegally transferring more than 250 million rubles abroad using forged documents when receiving payments for the marathons. On July 31, 2026, a Moscow court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment, suspended, and a fine of 763.5 million rubles. Her former husband received seven years in the same case.

Photo: Sergei Savostyanov / TASS

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