In a shocking turn of events, a senior executive from Binance, the global cryptocurrency exchange, has left Nigeria after being accused of financial fraud. This has made the Nigerian government work harder to get Kenya to extradite him.
Sources in the Nigerian government told Punchng.com that Nadeem Anjarwalla, the executive from Binance in question, is thought to have run away to Kenya to avoid being caught by Nigerian police. He is in Kenya, and the government says it knows where he is and is working closely with Kenyan officials to make it easier for him to return to Nigeria.
Binance Executive Anjarwalla Accused of $35.4 Million Financial Crimes
A shocking $35.4 million in financial crimes are being blamed on Anjarwalla. These include money laundering, tax cheating, and currency speculation. Because of these charges, Nigerian law enforcement agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Police, the Kenyan Police, and Interpol have all worked together.
Anjarwalla and another Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, were arrested in Nigeria in February on suspicion of manipulating the Nigerian naira. This case goes back to that time. The EFCC is still holding Gambaryan, but Anjarwalla allegedly got away on March 22 by using his UK passport to get on a plane leaving Abuja.
Even though Nigerian officials have Anjarwalla’s UK passport, it is still unclear what led to his departure. Punch’s investigations also shed light on the ongoing questioning of soldiers watching Anjarwalla and the involvement of many Nigerian government agencies in the case.
Binance and its businesses in Nigeria are affected by the ongoing scandal in a bigger way. On March 5, Binance said that all naira trades would be stopped and all naira trading pairs would be removed from its peer-to-peer platform. The Nigerian government has been paying more attention and making more efforts to stop what they think is money laundering through cryptocurrency exchanges. This move came after that.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, has previously said that he is worried about crypto exchanges in Nigeria because of illegal trades worth more than $21.6 billion. The events that led to Anjarwalla’s flight and the following pursuit by Nigerian authorities show how difficult and complicated things are in the country’s cryptocurrency industry.
