Nigeria sets dangerous precedent by detaining Binance executives, CEO says

The CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Tuesday accused Nigeria of setting a dangerous precedent after its executives were invited to the African country and then detained as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

Binance, the largest in the world cryptocurrency exchange and two of its executives face separate trials for tax evasion and money laundering, which the company is contesting.

CEO Richard Teng said in a statement that the time has come to speak out against the detention of Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance.

The other executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who serves as regional manager for Africa, fled Nigeria in March.

Teng said Binance executives held their first meetings with Nigerian authorities in the country in January.

At a follow-up meeting on February 26, authorities said the issues involving Binance were national security and demanded that the exchange remove the naira currency from its platform and provide “granular-level” details on all Nigerian users, he has declared.

Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were subsequently arrested.

“Inviting a company’s mid-level employees to collaborative political meetings, only to then retain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies around the world,” Teng said, in his strongest comments since the case began in February.

Gambaryan was detained in Nigeria for more than two months “for spurious reasons,” Teng said.

Binance announced in early March that it would halt all naira transactions and trading.

“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and that Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” Ten said.

He said Gambaryan should be allowed to return home while Binance and Nigerian authorities resolve any issues.

“We will continue dialogue with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) of Nigeria on the resolution of potential historic tax liabilities,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our Ethics statement for details.

Fuente