British-Kenyan Executive Nadeem Anjarwalla Escapes Custody Amid Nigeria-Binance Dispute
Two Binance executives were detained in Nigeria in February 2024 on suspicion of tax evasion, money laundering, and other undisclosed offenses.
The Nigerian government also accuses Binance (a cryptocurrency exchange and trade platform) of being used for money laundering and other illegal activities in the country and as a result, Binance stopped its users from using Nigerian Naira in early March 2024.
One of the executives who were detained in Nigeria, Nadeem Anjarwalla, recently escaped custody and is now on the run. The Abuja-based Premium Times newspaper reported and broke this news first. While Tigran Gambaryan the other detained executive is still in custody of Nigeria.
The Nigerian government is trying to apprehend him and continues its legal case against Binance. As shared by officials:
Nigerian government is looking to and "working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on the suspect", the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) of Nigeria said in an official statement.
Nadeem Anjarwalla, a Binance executive (regional manager of Binance for Africa) who was detained in Nigeria for alleged tax evasion, escaped custody on March 22nd.
Nadeem Anjarwalla is believed to have flown out of Abuja using a smuggled Kenyan passport. Nigerian law firms and official authorities are investigating how Anjarwalla obtained the passport and are trying to locate him
"The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention," Zakari Mijinyawa, spokesman for the office of Nigeria's National Security Adviser said in a statement.
To help you understand it:
- Nadeem Anjarwalla and his colleague were arrested on February 26th, 2024 upon arrival in Nigeria.
- The Nigerian government accuses Binance of failing to register with tax authorities and facilitating money laundering.
- Binance has refused to comply with a court order to provide information on Nigerian users.
More on this story later, however, this news would be an alarming sign and a first step for the US to ban Binance as a few months ago the platform pleaded guilty and CEO CZ agreed to pay $4.3 billion in criminal money laundering settlement charges and also agreed to resign. While Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is waiting for his criminal trials that have been postponed to 30 April by a US court, now 2 Binance executives are also detained by Nigeria over smilier allegations.
Seems like Binance has been into illegal activities and nobody was able to find it out.
