{"id":129501,"date":"2025-05-19T01:15:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129501"},"modified":"2025-05-19T01:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:15:30","slug":"russia-arrests-blum-co-founder-vladimir-smerkis-on-fraud-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129501","title":{"rendered":"Russia arrests Blum co-founder Vladimir Smerkis on fraud charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsVladimir Smerkis, a co-founder of the Telegram-based crypto project Blum, has reportedly been arrested in Moscow, Russia, on fraud allegations, amid Blum confirming he is no longer affiliated with the project.<br \/>\nThe Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow approved a request from investigators to keep Smerkis in custody while he is being investigated, Russian state-owned news outlet TASS reported on May 18.<br \/>\nSmerkis \u2014 who previously ran operations for Binance in Russia \u2014 is suspected of committing fraud on a \u201clarge scale,\u201d pursuant to Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, violations of which can result in imprisonment ranging from two to 12 years.<br \/>\nIt isn\u2019t clear if charges have been filed against Smerkis.<br \/>\nRussian news outlet Mash tied the fraud allegations against Smerkis to his involvement in The Token Fund and Tokenbox crypto ventures that he co-founded in 2017, where investors reportedly suffered combined losses of around $15 million.<br \/>\nBlum, which is not involved in The Token Fund and Tokenbox ventures, wrote to X on May 18 that Smerkis resigned from his role as the firm\u2019s chief marketing officer and would no longer be involved in the project in any capacity.<br \/>\nSource: BlumBlum said its team remains fully committed and focused on its goals and that its day-to-day operations would continue as usual.<br \/>\nBlum is a crypto project that integrates a decentralized exchange into Telegram Mini Apps, enabling users to trade crypto, earn rewards and participate in token airdrops.<br \/>\nNo Smerkis, no BLUM token?<br \/>\nThe incident sparked concerns that Blum\u2019s token airdrop won\u2019t follow through as planned.\u00a0<br \/>\nIn an April 3 X post, Blum hinted at a potential BLUM token listing in the third quarter of this year.<br \/>\nBlum users could receive BLUM tokens by earning Blum points in its newly launched Drop Game, where users tap on snowflakes falling from their mobile phone screen, and convert those points into tokens during the project\u2019s slated token generation event.<br \/>\nRelated: Pavel Durov rejects EU pressure to censor Romanian election content<br \/>\nHowever, the news of Smerkis\u2019 arrest appears to have shaken community confidence that the BLUM token airdrop will happen.<br \/>\n\u201cBlum owes its users a clarification on the planned airdrop,\u201d one X user and Blum community member said, while crypto influencer RK Gupta added:<br \/>\n\u201cNo airdrop. No updates. Just silence. Was it all for nothing?\u201d<br \/>\nMagazine: Pranksy: Inside the anonymous life of an NFT legend \u2014 NFT Collector<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/blum-co-founder-arrested-moscow-fraud-resigns-blum?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsVladimir Smerkis, a co-founder of the Telegram-based crypto project Blum, has reportedly been arrested in Moscow, Russia, on fraud allegations, amid Blum confirming he is no longer affiliated&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}