Mr. Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is Binance’s regional manager for Africa had been detained since his arrival into the country on February 26 has escaped custody, the National Security Adviser to the President said.
Mr. Anjarwalla came into the country alongside Mr. Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of Financial Crimes Compliance to resolve the issues with the Federal Government over an ongoing investigations on cryptocurrency related offences crumbling the nation’s currency and were awaiting trial before his disappearance from lawful custody.
The executives claimed to have been held unlawfully without any charge since March 12. The Federal Government of Nigeria is charging Binance for crimes over the devaluation of Naira and unregulated operations in the country.
The office of the National Security Adviser said in a statement that the Nigeria’s security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on Mr. Anjarwalla.
Binance in his response said, it was aware that Anjarwalla, who is the company’s regional manager for Africa, was no longer under Nigerian custody and that the company was working with authorities to resolve the issue.
Nigeria has filed tax evasion charges against the cryptocurrency platform, Binance and is seeking an international arrest warrant for the company’s regional manager for Africa who fled custody last week.
Nigerian authorities had asked a court in Abuja for an extension in the detention of the two Binance executives after the warrant under which they were initially detained elapsed. The government had also approached the court to compel Binance to publish the names of its Nigerian traders but the platform has refused.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has filed a new case in Abuja accusing Binance, of four counts of tax evasion.
The charges include non-payment of value-added tax (VAT), company income tax, failure to file tax returns, and complicity in helping customers to evade taxes through its platform.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, in his take on this issue said, “We consider ourselves as having the wherewithal to collaborate with other agencies of government and that is a very important function for us.
About a month ago, we actually did have collaboration with law enforcement agencies; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), the Security Exchange Commission(SEC)and other regulatory bodies as well, and what came out of that, is a work in progress, but very positive as far as I can say”.
“The NSA, we’ve been sharing information together. However, in this particular case, the responsibility for regulating cryptocurrency is not our role, it isn’t ours; it is strictly that of the Security and Exchange Commission, not our responsibility.”
Binance earlier this month said it would stop all transactions and trading in Nigeria’s local currency after March 8 following a nationwide crackdown on crypto exchanges that authorities have blamed for fuelling demand for U.S. dollars on the black market. The company said it would stop supporting withdrawals and any remaining balances in Nigerian naira would be automatically converted into Tether – a stable coin whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar.
