The Nigerian Federal Government filed tax evasion charges against Cryptocurrency giant Binance on Monday, according to media reports.
- The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accused Binance of not paying VAT and company Income tax, failing to file returns, and aiding its customers to evade taxes through its platform.
- The charges also list the company’s senior executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, as second and third defendants accusing them of violating the country’s tax regulations.
- The tax agency based its allegations on Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007, which oversees the non-deduction and non-remittance of taxes, recommending the imprisonment of defaulters.
“Any company that transacts business above N25 million annually is deemed by the Finance Act to be present in Nigeria. According to this rule, Binance falls into that category,” the charges mentioned.
Nigerian media also reports that Anjarwalla escaped from custody on Friday, where the two had been detained since late February. The Office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser said in a statement that the suspect escaped from the country’s capital Abuja using ‘a smuggled passport’.
The Binance executives were supposed to face a preliminary trial in court on Apr 4. They were arrested after jetting into the West African nation to negotiate with the government after the company had been blacklisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria. According to the Central Bank governor, Olayemi Cardoso about $26 billion was transferred out of the country illegally through Binance.
Cryptocurrency platforms were clamped down in an attempt to solve forex shortages and institute capital controls to save the slumping Naira. In early March, Binance announced that its customers would no longer trade in the Naira, advising them to convert their assets into USDT or withdraw their money.
The courts allowed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to detain the two executives for 14 days pending investigations, as authorities suspect currency speculators and money launderers are using the platform to sabotage the country’s financial sector.
Binance faces an avalanche of scandals globally after the U.S. Department of Justice listed the platform as a notorious playground for terrorist funding and other serious financial crimes. Its founder Changpeng Zhao, who stepped down as CEO, is facing criminal charges in the U.S. A string of regulatory pressures and market rejections in Europe have further deepened the crypto’s woes.
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