{"id":255923,"date":"2025-05-25T04:01:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T04:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/binances-former-russia-head-blum-co-founder-arrested-in-connection-to-fraud-case\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T04:01:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T04:01:32","slug":"binances-former-russia-head-blum-co-founder-arrested-in-connection-to-fraud-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923","title":{"rendered":"Binance&#8217;s Former Russia Head, Blum Co-Founder Arrested in Connection to Fraud Case"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n<br><div>\n\n                                        \n\n\n<p><em>Smerkis worked for Binance from 2022 for just under two years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-to-know\">What to know:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vladimir Smerkis, Binance\u2019s former Russia division head, was arrested in Russia for unspecified fraud allegations, a local media outlet reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The trading app he co-founded \u2014 Blum \u2014 said Saturday on X Smerkis was no longer involved in the project.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Vladimir Smerkis, Binance\u2019s former Russia division head, was arrested in Russia for being connected to a large-scale criminal fraud case, local media outlet TASS\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tass.ru\/proisshestviya\/23973465\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported on Sunday.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zamoskvoretsky District Court, which resides in Moscow, granted an investigator\u2019s request to detain Smerkis, an unnamed law enforcement agency source told TASS. The report did not share specific details of the fraud case. CoinDesk was unable to contact the Zamoskvoretsky District Court for more information.<\/p><div class=\"g g-1\"><div class=\"g-single a-23\"><a class=\"gofollow\" data-track=\"MjMsMSwxLDYw\" href=\"https:\/\/event.webinarjam.com\/register\/233\/wm1xna0z\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"850\" height=\"500\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.activistpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/privacy-academy-photo_2025-05-16_14-29-29-1.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Smerkis co-founded trading app Blum in December 2023 but the company said Saturday on X he had stepped down from his role as chief marketing officer and\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/blumcrypto\/status\/1923800818798449140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1923800818798449140%7Ctwgr%5E6110a8e7b5ce3a4374dec9c8146fe223b766296c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cryptotimes.io%2F2025%2F05%2F19%2Fex-binance-exec-and-blum-co-founder-arrested-in-russia%2F\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is no longer involved in the project<\/a>. He has also been the managing partner of four other ventures including\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/tokenbox.io\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tokenbox.io<\/a>\u00a0and The Token Fund according to LinkedIn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to starting Blum, Smerkis worked for the Binance crypto exchange from 2022 for just under two years. In that time he was the head of Russia and later the head of its Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) business, according to LinkedIn. The\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/statistics-explained\/index.php?title=Glossary:Commonwealth_of_Independent_States_(CIS)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CIS is a group of 11 nations<\/a>\u00a0which coordinate on key decisions like trade and lawmaking; Russia is among those nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Binance did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n            \n        <\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smerkis worked for Binance from 2022 for just under two years. What to know: Vladimir Smerkis, Binance\u2019s former Russia division head, was arrested in Russia for unspecified fraud allegations, a local media outlet reported. The trading app he co-founded \u2014 Blum \u2014 said Saturday on X Smerkis was no longer involved in the project. Vladimir [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[21254,40993,92691,415,22184,11447,11178,3737],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-255923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-arrested","tag-binances","tag-blum","tag-case","tag-cofounder","tag-connection","tag-fraud","tag-russia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Binance&#039;s Former Russia Head, Blum Co-Founder Arrested in Connection to Fraud Case - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Binance&#039;s Former Russia Head, Blum Co-Founder Arrested in Connection to Fraud Case - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Smerkis worked for Binance from 2022 for just under two years. What to know: Vladimir Smerkis, Binance\u2019s former Russia division head, was arrested in Russia for unspecified fraud allegations, a local media outlet reported. The trading app he co-founded \u2014 Blum \u2014 said Saturday on X Smerkis was no longer involved in the project. Vladimir [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-25T04:01:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/privacy-academy-photo_2025-05-16_14-29-29-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Binance&#8217;s Former Russia Head, Blum Co-Founder Arrested in Connection to Fraud Case\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-25T04:01:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/privacy-academy-photo_2025-05-16_14-29-29-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Arrested\",\"Binances\",\"Blum\",\"Case\",\"cofounder\",\"Connection\",\"Fraud\",\"russia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Activist\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=255923\",\"name\":\"Binance's Former Russia Head, Blum Co-Founder Arrested in Connection to Fraud Case - 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