Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of the Crypto Project Blum based in Telegram, would have been arrested in Moscow, Russia, on allegations of fraud, in the middle of Blum confirming that he is no longer affiliated with the project.
The district court of Zamoskvoretsky of Moscow approved a request from the investigators to keep Smerkis in detention while it was the subject of an investigation, Tass reported on May 18.
Smerkis – which previously directed operations for Binance in Russia – is suspected of having committed fraud on a “large scale”, in accordance with article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, of which violations can lead to a prison sentence ranging from two to 12 years.
It is not clear if accusations have been deposited against Smerkis.
The Russian Mash media equaled the allegations of fraud against Smerkis to its involvement in the Token and Tokenbox Crypture Fund that he co-founded in 2017, where investors would have undergone combined losses of around $ 15 million.
Blum, which is not involved in the tokest funds and Tokenbox Ventures, wrote to X on May 18 that Smerkis resigned from its role as director of business marketing and would no longer be involved in the project in any way whatsoever.
Blum said that his team remains fully engaged and focused on their goals and that his daily operations would continue as usual.
Blum is a crypto project that incorporates a decentralized exchange in mini TELEGRAM applications, allowing users to exchange crypto, win awards and participate in Token goalkeepers.
No smerkis, no Blum token?
The incident aroused concerns that the gain of blum token will not follow as expected.
In a post of April 3, Blum alluded to a potential list of Blum tokens in the third quarter of this year.
Blum users could receive Blum tokens by winning Blum points in its newly launched deposit game, where users press the snowflakes falling from the screen of their mobile phone, and converting these points into tokens during the planned tokens generation.
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However, the news of the arrest of Smerkis seems to have shaken the community that the Token Blum bomb will occur.
“Blum owes its users a clarification on the planned air map,” said a user and a member of the Blum community, while the cryptographic influencer RK Gupta added:
“No airlines. No updates. Just silence. Was nothing for nothing? “
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