By Abiola Olawale
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance Holdings, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, Richard Teng, has alleged that some persons purportedly representing the Nigerian authorities demanded a $150 million bribe from the company.
Teng alleged that the agent purportedly representing the Nigerian government requested the said bribe after a meeting between Nigerian lawmakers in January 2024 before Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were arrested on February 28, 2024.
Teng made these claims in a blog post on Monday, detailing how the Binance executives tried to engage with Nigerian authorities, including a January 8 meeting in Abuja, before they were accused of criminal acts.
He said the meeting was set up with the Nigerian government through a committee consisting of about “30 agencies.”
He noted that the committee emphasized the serious nature of the meeting and their readiness to issue arrest warrants and restrict travel for Binance’s team.
He said: “As our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations.
“Later that day, our local counsel — representing us at that time — was summoned by the committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us.
“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning. The figure was roughly $150 million.
“Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed. We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer,” Teng said.
The New Diplomat recalls that on February 28, Nigerian officials detained two senior Binance executives: Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan who serves as the regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old American in charge of financial crime compliance at Binance.
The executives visited Nigeria in response to the country’s recent crackdown on various cryptocurrency trading platforms During their stay, they were apprehended by the ONSA, and their passports were confiscated.
However, on March 24, a statement from ONSA confirmed that one of the executives, Anjarwalla escaped from lawful custody.
The Federal Government has since revealed that it is discussing with Interpol to secure an international arrest warrant for Anjarwalla and extradite him to Nigeria.
Subsequently, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja filed legal proceedings against the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, alleging four instances of tax evasion.
The allegation against Binance involves the non-remittance of value-added tax (VAT), company income tax (CIT), non-compliance with tax return filing obligations, and facilitating tax evasion for its users.
According to the FIRS, “One of the counts in the lawsuit pertains to Binance’s alleged failure to collect and remit various categories of taxes to the federation as stipulated by Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007 as amended.”
All parties involved have pleaded not guilty to all charges, as the case is adjourned till May 17 by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
