Former regional director of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance Vladimir Smerkis was arrested in Moscow.
Law enforcement officers arrested Smerkis on May 16 and charged him with fraud on an especially large scale, for which he faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to ₽1 million. After Vladimir’s arrest, a hearing was held in the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow to determine his preventive measure, following which he was placed in custody, most likely for two months.
Details of the criminal case against Smerkis have not yet been disclosed, but according to the charges, he was convicted of embezzling at least ₽1 million. In 2022, Vladimir left the post of head Binance in the CIS and created a cryptocurrency game for the messenger Telegram Blum. However, on Saturday, the application’s press service announced his resignation from the post of director, while the «tapalka» continues to operate in normal mode, so the arrest is unlikely to be related to this game.
Most likely, Vladimir ended up behind bars because of two failed investment projects: The Token Fund and Tokenbox. As the founder of these startups, Smerkis offered people to invest in native digital assets, but did not live up to the expectations of clients who lost $15 million because The Token The Fund suddenly closed in June 2018, and Tokenbox coins (TBX) sharply depreciated in January of the same year.
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