ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria has filed charges of tax evasion against Binance and two executives of the cryptocurrency platform it detained, as the government said that one of the men had fled the country.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (Firs) accused Binance of non-payment of value-added tax and company income tax, failure to file tax returns and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform, it said in an e-mailed statement on March 25.
Many residents of Africa’s most populous nation have flocked to crypto assets amid a plunge in the nation’s currency.
That prompted the authorities to crack down on platforms offering digital tokens.
Central bank governor Olayemi Cardoso in February alleged that Binance handled US$26 billion (S$35 billion) in untraceable transactions, days before the two Binance executives visiting Nigeria were detained.
Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, held in the West African country since late February, were identified as defendants in the case filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the nation’s capital, Firs said.
Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan citizenships, escaped from custody on March 22, the National Security Adviser said in a separate statement on March 25. The executive was on a 14-day detention and scheduled to appear in court on April 4.
Binance has been “made aware that Nadeem is no longer in Nigerian custody”, a spokesperson said in response to queries.
While the crackdown has hobbled Binance in Nigeria, other crypto exchanges, including Yellow Card Financial, are still operational.
“There is quite a drastic drop in the trade volumes and trading activities on those platforms,” said Mr Obinna Iwuno, president of an association of blockchain stakeholders in Nigeria.
Nigeria risks missing an “opportunity to capture the massive global value from the fastest-growing emerging technology in the world”, he said.
The Binance executives had been invited to Nigeria to meet officials in February after the government blocked access to cryptocurrency channels amid a crackdown on currency speculators.
The country has witnessed a 70 per cent devaluation in the value of the naira against the US dollar since foreign exchange reforms in 2023, exacerbated by local dollar scarcity. BLOOMBERG
