The Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced Vladimir Smerkis, former director of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in the CIS and co-founder of the Blum cryptocurrency game, to five years in a general order colony on charges of fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code).
Samarkis has been detained in this case since May 2025.
Prosecutors allege that Smerkis promised the cryptocurrency blogger who contacted him to organize an advertising campaign and attract about 2 million new users in exchange for a reward of more than 8.8 million rubles. However, Smerkis did not fulfill his obligations and “disposed of the funds at his own discretion,” the Moscow prosecutor’s office said.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office did not specify whether Samerkis had admitted guilt.
41-year-old Smerkis is an investor, trader and expert who has been actively involved in the development of the digital economy and blockchain technology. He worked in the Mail.ru group, in the A1 TV channel, in the Global Point agency and in Red Bull. At the beginning of 2022, Smerkis became the director of Binance in the CIS. He was responsible for the development of cryptocurrency exchanges in the region and held this position until September 2023. Shortly before leaving his position as CIS director, Binance announced that it was considering leaving the Russian market entirely.
In April 2024, Smerkis, along with another senior manager at Binance, Gleb Kostarev, launched the Blum app, which allows you to trade cryptocurrency assets in the Telegram widget. Project like I mentionedattracted investments worth five million dollars. In April 2025, by Data The project itself, had more than 92 million users.