Nigerian authorities have formally charged Binance, and its detained executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambarya, with tax evasion, an offense punishable under Section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993.
According to the allegations, Binance failed to register with Nigeria’s tax collection agency, the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS).
Confirmed by the FIRS and reported by Bloomberg, the charges include:
- non-payment of value-added tax and company tax
- failure to file tax returns, and
- aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.
Binance’s troubles started with the drastic Naira crash and the government’s efforts to curb forex trading.
The government restricted the company from operating in Nigerian cyberspace.
Binance as a result ,had to disable naira services on its platform, and pledged to comply with authorities.
The crypto giant was also accused of failure to provide data of its top users as requested by the government.
In its defense , the company mentioned that it has responded to over 626 information requests assisting the government’s investigations into financial crimes such as scams, fraud, and money laundering.
The events however degenerated into the detention of two of the company’s executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan.
They were taken into custody on February 26, 2024.
On Monday Nadeem was reported to have escaped from the Abuja guest house where they were both detained .
According to reports, The office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA) believes that Nadeem left Nigeria using a smuggled passport, flying a Middle East airliner.
The NSA added that efforts are underway to find him.
“Security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant for the suspect.”
Fingers are crossed as the twists and turns of events unfold.
