Officials have revealed that Nigeria has filed tax evasion charges against popular cryptocurrency platform Binance and is seeking an international arrest warrant for the company’s Regional Manager for Africa who fled custody last week.
The Manager, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan, was detained in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into the activities of Binance in Nigeria.
The office of Nigeria’s security adviser said it is liaising with Interpol after Anjarwalla escaped recently.
Binance said it was aware that Anjarwalla was no longer in Nigerian custody and was liaising with authorities to resolve the issue.
Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, a United States citizen and Binance’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance, flew to Nigeria after the country’s decision to ban many cryptocurrency trading websites and were both detained upon arrival on February 26.
Anjarwalla and Gambaryan could not be contacted.
Their representative, who asked not to be named, said both officials were being held illegally since their detention order expired on March 12 and added that Anjarwalla left Nigeria by lawful means.
The representative said: “Nadeem left unlawful custody on Saturday 23, he was not being tried by Nigerian courts and has not been informed of any charges against him.”
Nigerian authorities had asked an Abuja court to extend the detention of the two Binance executives after the warrant under which they were initially detained elapsed. people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
On Monday, Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) filed a case in Abuja accusing Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, of four counts of tax evasion.
The FIRS 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.
Binance has not commented on the tax charges.
Earlier this month, Binance said it would halt every transaction and trading in Nigeria’s local currency after March 8 following a nation-wide crackdown on crypto exchanges that authorities have blamed for triggering demand for U.S. dollars on the black market.
