Binance ‘made aware’ of executive who fled Nigeria

An executive detained by Nigeria for weeks escaped custody on Friday.

Nadeem Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Africa, was detained in late February alongside Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, Tigran Gambrayan.

Neither executive has been charged with a crime. A Nigerian court last week decided to postpone a decision on a detention extension until April 5, according to a representative for the executives.

Binance, in a statement to Blockworks, confirmed that it had been “made aware” that Anjarwalla was no longer in Nigerian custody.

“Our primary focus remains on the safety of our employees and we are working collaboratively with Nigerian authorities to quickly resolve this issue,” a Binance spokesperson said.

Binance told Blockworks in mid-March that it was hoping for a “swift resolution” to the detention of Anjarwalla and Gambrayan.

Bloomberg reported Monday morning that Nigeria also filed tax evasion charges against Binance. According to a statement seen by the publication, Binance was accused of “nonpayment of value-added tax and company income tax, failure to file tax returns and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes” through the platform.

Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service didn’t immediately return a request for comment to confirm the charges. Binance didn’t return a request for comment on the charges.

Nigeria targeted Binance in late February, alleging that $26 billion had been passed through Binance Nigeria, according to the country’s central bank governor. Binance then ended support for the Naira in early March.

Officials in the country previously said that they were weighing fines against the crypto exchange. One official, in an interview with BBC’s pidgin language service, even said that the government was looking at a $10 billion fine. However, Binance told local media that it was not in talks with the government over a fine of that sum.

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