A Nigerian court has postponed a tax evasion trial involving cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, and two of its executives to May 17 2024.
According to a local outlet, the trial was delayed because the exchange had not yet been officially served with the charges.
Binance and its executives, including Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen serving as Head of Financial Crime Compliance, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan Regional Manager for Africa, are facing four counts of tax evasion.
The charges against them include failure to register with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for tax remittance purposes. According to the local daily, Gambaryan appeared in court in Abuja on Friday April 19 2024 but did not enter a plea.
Anjarwalla fled the country in March 2024 with local authorities in contact with Interpol and Kenyan authorities to retrieve him.
REGULATION | Nigerian 🇳🇬 Government Reportedly Working with INTERPOL 🇬🇧, FBI 🇺🇸, Kenyan 🇰🇪 and British 🇬🇧 Governments to Extradite Binance African Manager
On March 28 2024, the EFCC charged Binance Holdings Limited, Gambaryan, Anjarwalla with $35,400,000 money laundering.… pic.twitter.com/IgebLcWTSH
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 11, 2024
FIRS has not yet served Binance with the tax evasion charges. However, the lawyer representing FIRS argued that Gambaryan should be held accountable for the charges on behalf of the exchange.
Gambaryan’s lawyer, Chukwuka Ikuazom, objected to this, arguing that since Binance and its executives were jointly charged, Gambaryan could not enter a plea until the exchange, as the first defendant in the case, had been served, as required by Nigerian law.
Judge Emeka Nwite adjourned the proceedings to May 17 2024, when he will deliver a ruling.
In addition to the tax evasion trial, Binance and the executives are also facing charges of laundering over $35 million, brought by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The trial for these charges is scheduled to resume on May 2 2024.
Binance, which was not represented in court and did not offer immediate comment, has said that it is collaborating closely with Nigerian authorities in response to the detention of Gambaryan.
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