In Moscow, the ex-head of Binance in the CIS was taken into custody

Vladimir Smerkis, the former head of the Binance crypto exchange in the CIS, was arrested on May 16 on suspicion of fraud. This is stated in the materials of the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow.

The man is also the co-founder of the Blum crypto game. It was introduced as an analogue of the popular Hamster Kombat in 2024. The game promised users real payouts for "farming" and the exchange of in-game tokens, but the promises were never fulfilled.

Blum, in turn, reported that Smerkis resigned from his position at the company.

"We would like to inform our community that Vladimir Smerkis has left the position of marketing director and is no longer involved in the development of the project and is not a co—founder," reads a statement posted on Telegram.

There will be cases: Hutsul risks remaining under house arrest until March 2026

In which case the Bashkan can get a real term

On May 17, a correspondent for Izvestia reported that the Tverskoy District Court of the capital had placed Mikhail Khubutia, the former Minister of Trade of the Moscow Region, under house arrest. Earlier in the day, Hubutia voluntarily appeared before the investigating authorities and confessed to assaulting his ex-lover Yulia Wang.