In Moscow, Vladimir Smerkis was arrested - co-founder of the crypto game Blum.

The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court approved the arrest of Vladimir Smerkis, the head of the Binance exchange for Eastern Europe and the CIS, and co-founder of the crypto game Blum, on charges of serious fraud.

The arrest may be related to projects from the past few years, where clients reportedly lost at least $15 million.

In 2017, he created The Token Fund - one of the earliest cryptocurrency investment funds. Investors purchased internal tokens TKN with real cryptocurrency, promising capital appreciation. The project raised $8 million in investments and profited from the rise of cryptocurrency but suddenly closed in 2018. Clients did not see their money returned.

Smerkis's next project was Tokenbox. It received $7 million in investment, and the token TBX was listed on two exchanges simultaneously, almost immediately depreciating and disappearing.

On May 16, Vladimir Smerkis was arrested on suspicion of fraud.

#blum #scam