Nadeem Anjarwalla, one of the two Binance executives held in Nigeria on charges of tax evasion and other offences, has allegedly escaped from official custody.
According to a report by an online newspaper, Anjarwalla, 38, escaped on Friday, March 22, from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast.
An immigration official told an Online newspaper that Anjarwalla, who is also a citizen of Kenya, is thought to have left Abuja on a Middle East airliner, therefore escaping.
The insider stated that the “Binance executive left Nigeria on a Kenyan passport as authorities are investigating how he got the passport, considering he didn’t have any other travel documents on him when he was arrested aside from the British passport.”
Another source told the newspaper that the suspect was held at a “comfortable guest house” and allowed many rights, including the use of telephones, a privilege Anjarwalla is believed to have exploited to plot an escape.
On further inquiry into the matter on Sunday night of the escape of the Binance executive from detention, the Head of Strategic Communication at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Zakari Mijinyawa, who was contacted, said he would enquire and get back, but has not done that at the time the story was published.
On February 26, Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Binance in Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen in charge of the cryptocurrency exchange platform, were arrested for tax evasion as soon as they arrived in Nigeria.
The two executives were charged with the tax evasion crime in an Abuja Magistrate Court. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was permitted by the court on February 28, to remand the two individuals for 14 days.
To prevent the officials from tampering with evidence, the court extended the remand of the officials for an additional 14 days. After Binance refused to comply with the order, the court adjourned the case until April 4, 2024.
Additionally, the court ordered Binance to provide the Nigerian government with the data/information of Nigerians trading on its platform.
Also on March 22, the Nigerian government approached the Federal High Court in Abuja and slammed another four-count charge on Binance Holdings Limited, Anjarwalla and Gambaryan, accusing them of offering services to subscribers on their platform while failing to register with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to pay all relevant taxes administered by the Service and in so doing, committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as Amended).
The defendants were also accused of offering taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform while failing to issue invoices to those subscribers to determine and pay their value-added taxes and, in so doing, committed an offence contrary to and punishable under S.29 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as amended).
Count Three of the charges accused the three defendants of offering services to subscribers on their Binance trading platform for the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and the remittance and transfer of those assets while failing to deduct the necessary Value Added Taxes arising from their operations and thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 40 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service Establishment Act 2007 (as amended).
According to the last count of the charges, the defendants should be punished for allegedly encouraging users of their Binance trading platform to illegally withhold taxes or fail to pay them, which is against the law and subject to punishment under S.94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended).
