Binance working closely with Nigeria over detained executive – CEO

Cryptocurrency exchange company, Binance said it is working very closely with the Nigerian government over its detained executive.

The CEO of Binance, Richard Teng, disclosed this on Thursday with the company’s head of financial crime compliance still in detention in Nigeria.

The Nigerian government’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Binance for laundering more than $35 million.

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“What I can say is that we are working very closely with the Nigerian authorities to try to resolve the matter,” Teng said while speaking about Gambaryan’s case during the Token2049 crypto conference in Dubai.

Nigerian authorities detained two senior officials of Binance, Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan in February when they arrived in the West African country to dialogue with government officials over the clampdown on the cryptocurrency platform.

The detention of the officials came a day after the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso said that about $26 billion, mostly from unknown sources, flowed through the exchange in the last one year.
Nigeria recently clamped down on cryptocurrency marketplaces as it continued to battle volatile foreign exchange rates that saw the value of the naira plummet to an all-time low.

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Three weeks after their detention, Nadeem Anjarwalla, one of the two Binance executives detained in Nigeria for alleged tax evasion and other offences escaped from custody.

The 38-year-old Anjarwalla escaped on March 22 from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained.

He made away after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers for the Ramadan fast.

The Briton, who also has Kenyan citizenship, is believed to have flown out of Abuja using a Middle East airliner.