Hamidat Ayomide KelaniNadeem Anjarawalla a British-Kenya who is Binance regional manager for African reportedly escapes from Africa on march 22 after being detained upon arrival in the country as part of an investigation in exchange.
Nadeem Anjarwalla, aged 38, allegedly fled from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were being held, purportedly taking advantage of a moment during Ramadan prayers when guards escorted him.
According to the Premium times report; despite his British passport remaining under the control of Nigerian authorities, he is believed to have escaped the country using a Kenyan passport.
An Immigration official said the Binance executive fled Nigeria on a Kenyan passport. He, however, said authorities were trying to determine how he obtained the passport, given that he had no other travel document (apart from the British passport) on him when he was taken into custody.
The detention of Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen overseeing financial crime compliance at crypto exchange platform, unfolded after their arrival in Nigeria on February 26, 2024.
The detention of Binance executives in Nigeria follows closely on the heels of the platform’s settlement of criminal money laundering charges in the United States.
Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, entered a guilty plea and agreed to resign from his position.
Zhao’s criminal trial, which is linked to the charges brought by the US Department of Justice, has been postponed to April 30.
A criminal charge was filed against the two executives before a Magistrate Court in Abuja. On 28 February 2024, the court granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an order to remand the duo for 14 days. The court also ordered Binance to provide the Nigerian government with the data/information of Nigerians trading on its platform.
Following Binance’s refusal to comply with the order, the court extended the remand of the officials for an additional 14 days to prevent them from tampering with evidence. The court then adjourned the case till 4 April 2024.
Also on 22 March, the Nigerian government approached the Federal High Court in Abuja and slammed another four-count charge on Binance Holdings Limited, Mr Anjarwalla and Mr Gambaryan, accusing them of offering services to subscribers on their platform while failing to register with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to pay all relevant taxes administered by the Service and in so doing, committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as Amended).
The defendants were also accused of offering taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform while failing to issue invoices to those subscribers to determine and pay their value-added taxes and, in so doing, committed an offence contrary to and punishable under S.29 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as amended).
Count Three of the charges accused the three defendants of offering services to subscribers on their Binance trading platform for the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and the remittance and transfer of those assets while failing to deduct the necessary Value Added Taxes arising from their operations and thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 40 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service Establishment Act 2007 (as amended).
The last count of the charges wants the defendants punished for allegedly aiding and abetting subscribers on their Binance trading platform to unlawfully refuse to pay taxes or neglect to pay those taxes and, in so doing, committing an offence contrary to and punishable under the provisions of S.94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended).
The Nigerian government had, in the past three months, been cracking down on suspected money launderers and terrorism financiers, some of whom it alleged are using the Binance platform for criminal activities.
The Nigerian government said over $21.6 billion was traded by Nigerians whose identities were concealed pointing to potential illicit activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing and market manipulation.
These activities, according to Nigerian authorities, have had adverse effects on the nation’s economy, contributing to currency fluctuations and undermining the value of the Naira.
The detention of Binance officials in Nigeria began months after the crypto exchange platform pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle criminal money laundering charges levied by the US Department of Justice.
