One of the Binance executives detained in Nigeria, Nadeem Anjarwalla, reportedly fled from police custody in Abuja. The 38-year-old, accused of tax evasion and other offenses, managed to escape from a guest house where he was being held along with a colleague.
According to Premiumtimes, Anjarwalla escaped on March 22, with security sources suggesting that guards allowed him to leave for prayers at a nearby mosque during Ramadan fasting. He, believed to hold both British and Kenyan citizenship, is said to have left Abuja on a Middle East-bound flight.
Questions arise about how Anjarwalla boarded an international flight as Nigerian authorities held onto his British passport upon his entry. Authorities are now trying to determine his destination to bring him back into custody.
An Immigration official disclosed that Anjarwalla fled using a Kenyan passport, raising concerns about how he acquired it without any other travel document besides the British one.
Sources mentioned that the detained executives had certain privileges, including phone usage, which Anjarwalla may have exploited to plan his escape.
Efforts to reach Zakari Mijinyawa, Head of Strategic Communication at the Office of the National Security Adviser, for comment on Anjarwalla’s escape were unsuccessful at the time of this report.
Mr Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager, and Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange platform, were detained upon their arrival in Nigeria on 26 February 2024.
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 by Binance.
The government also claimed its investigations revealed that unscrupulous elements were using Binance for money laundering, terrorist financing, currency speculation and market manipulation, distorting the Nigerian economy and weakening the Naira against other currencies.
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