By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Richard Teng, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Tuesday alleged that Nigeria is setting a dangerous precedent following the detention of its executives who were invited to the African country in a move to crackdown on crypto.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange and two of its executives are facing separate trials over allegations bordering on tax evasion and money laundering.
In a statement on Tuesday, Teng said time has come to speak out against the detention of Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen and Binance head of financial crime compliance.
The other executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is a regional manager for Africa, fled Nigeria in March.
Teng said Binance executives first held meetings with Nigerian authorities in the country in January.
According to Teng, at a follow-up meeting on Feb. 26, the Nigerian government said the issues involving Binance were of national security and demanded that the exchange delist the local currency, naira from its platform and provide “granular-level” details on all Nigerian users.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were subsequently detained.
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“To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng said.
This is the company’s strongest comments since the case started in February.
Gambaryan was being held in Nigeria for more than two months “for spurious reasons,” Teng said.
Binance announced in early March it was stopping all transactions and trading in naira.
“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” said Teng.
He said Gambaryan should be allowed to go home while Binance and Nigerian authorities resolve any issues.
“We will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” he said.
Heritage Times HT reported that Anjarwalla later escaped from lawful custody and arrested days after by Kenyan authorities.
Since his escape, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) the International Criminal Police, the Nigeria Police Force, and the Kenyan Police Service have been in talks to extradite Anjarwalla.
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), had classified cryptocurrency trading as a national security issue.
It launched a clamp down as part of measures to shore up the value of naira which has in recent times suffered devaluation amidts inflation in the West African country.
