According to Nigerian authorities, cryptocurrency company executive Binance has escaped custody in Nigeria after he and another executive were arrested last week.
Details
Nadeem AnjarwallaBritish-Kenyan dual citizen, arrested in February with his American colleague Tigran Gambaryan as Nigerian authorities investigated alleged wrongdoing by Binance.
Nigeria said Mr Anjarwalla had left the country on a “smuggled passport”, but a family source said he had left “by legal means“.
The country is now “is working with Interpol on an international warrant for the suspect’s arrest“, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) said in a statement.
Mr. Gambaryan remains in custody.
What they say
“We have been informed that Nadeem is no longer in custody in Nigeria. Our primary focus remains the safety of our employees and we are working with the Nigerian authorities to quickly resolve this matter,” one Binance the spokesman said.
What happened
Mr Anjarwalla, the company’s regional director for Africa, and Mr Gambaryan, the company’s financial crime compliance officer, were arrested on February 26 after attending meetings in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to which they had been invited by the government.
The authorities have reportedly asked to name the Nigerians trading on their platform.
A court accepted the request of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to detain the two executives for 14 days, but their continued detention was not approved by the court and they were detained.illegally“.
Zoom in
The Federal Internal Revenue Service accuses the cryptocurrency platform of non-payment of value-added tax, corporate income tax, failure to file tax returns and complicity in assisting customers in tax evasion through its platform.
Zoom out
The central bank of Nigeria claimed that transactions valued at over $26 billion it had passed through Binance with untraceable sources.
He accused the platforms of fixing exchange rates and currency speculation that led to the free fall of the naira, the local currency, and ordered the company to pay a fine of 10 billion dollars.
Source: BBC
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