Nigeria 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 has fled the country.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service accused Binance of nonpayment 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 emailed statement Monday.
Many residents of Africa's most populous nation have flocked to cryptoassets amid a plunge in the nation's currency. That prompted authorities to crackdown on platforms offering digital tokens. Central bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso last month alleged that Binance handled $26 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 citizenship, escaped from custody on Friday, the National Security Adviser said in a separate statement on Monday. The executive was on 14-day detention and scheduled to appear in court on April 4.
Anjarwalla escaped after guards led him to a mosque for prayer, the Premium Times reported earlier. He and his colleague were being held at a guest house operated by the office of Nigeria's security adviser.
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 Inc. are still operational.
"There is quite a drastic drop in the trade volumes and trading activities on those platforms," 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% devaluation in the value of the naira against the dollar since foreign exchange reforms last year, exacerbated by local dollar scarcity.
