{"id":7545,"date":"2025-03-03T18:16:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2025-03-03T18:16:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:16:52","slug":"russian-lifestyle-coach-jailed-over-11-million-tax-evasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/?p=7545","title":{"rendered":"Russian lifestyle coach jailed over $11 million tax evasion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Elena Blinovskaya was arrested in 2023 while attempting to flee the country<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Russian lifestyle coach and blogger Elena Blinovskaya has been sentenced to five years behind bars for large-scale tax evasion and money laundering, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The Savelovsky District Court in Moscow delivered the verdict on Monday, also imposing a fine of 1 million rubles ($11,000) and a four-year ban on engaging in commercial activities. Prosecutors had requested a six-year term, while Blinovskaya had sought a deferral, citing her young children.<\/p>\n<p>According to court filings, the blogger falsified business records and failed to pay more than 900 million rubles (over $11 million) in income tax between 2019 and 2021, while laundering around $8 million. By late February 2025, Blinovskaya\u2019s tax debt, including penalties and fines, had risen to $16 million.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2023, the blogger was arrested at the border while trying to cross into Belarus by car. Police said she had also booked a flight from Moscow to Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n<p>Blinovskaya pleaded guilty to tax evasion and money laundering, and was declared bankrupt by a court in November. Her husband, Aleksey Blinovsky, who was also implicated in the case, signed a contract with the Russian military last year. The pair have four underage children.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mf.b37mrtl.ru\/files\/2023.04\/thumbnail\/644ba8572030271aa956d776.jpg\" alt=\"Elena Blinovskaya.\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/575480-blinovskaya-pleads-guilty-taxes\/\">Russian social media star admits to $11 million tax fraud<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A former beauty pageant winner, Blinovskaya made a fortune by giving motivational speeches and hosting public events, where she talked about financial success and gave relationship advice. She amassed more than 5 million followers on Instagram, and also offered online seminars, dubbed \u2018marathons\u2019, on topics such as psychology, astrology, motherhood, and sex. She described her work as helping people <em>\u201ctransition to the fourth dimension.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to a 2021 report in Forbes magazine, around 150,000 people had participated in Blinovskaya\u2019s events at that point. In 2022, she launched her own show on the TV3 channel.<\/p>\n<p>Initially placed under house arrest, Blinovskaya was later transferred to a pre-trial detention center in early 2024. Authorities changed her detention conditions after she hosted a New Year\u2019s Eve party attended by a key witness in her case.<\/p>\n<p>Blinovskaya remained silent as the judge read the decision, standing for the 15-minute announcement, according to media reports.<\/p>\n<p>A number of online Russian celebrities have recently been charged with money laundering and tax evasion, including fitness guru Valeria Chekalina and her husband, as well as prominent blogger Aleksandra Mitroshina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elena Blinovskaya was arrested in 2023 while attempting to flee the country Russian lifestyle coach and blogger Elena Blinovskaya has been sentenced to five years behind bars for large-scale tax&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}