The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance accused Nigeria on Tuesday of setting a dangerous precedent after its executives were invited to the African country and later arrested as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and two of its executives are facing separate trials for tax evasion and money laundering, which the company is challenging.
CEO Richard Teng said in a statement that it was time to speak out against the arrest of Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen and Binance's head of financial crime compliance.
The other executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is regional manager for Africa, fled Nigeria in March.
Teng said Binance executives first met with the country's Nigerian authorities in January.
In a follow-up meeting on February 26, authorities said the issues surrounding Binance were national security and demanded that the exchange remove the naira from its platform and provide “granular-level” details on all Nigerian users, he said.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were later arrested.
“Inviting a company's mid-level employees to collaborative policy meetings, only to arrest them, has set a dangerous new precedent for every business in the world,” said Teng, in his strongest comments yet. since the case began in February.
Gambaryan was held in Nigeria for more than two months “for spurious reasons,” Teng said.
Binance announced in early March that it was halting all Naira transactions and trading.
“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that did not happen,” Ten said.
He said Gambaryan should be allowed to go home while Binance and the Nigerian authorities resolve any issues.
“We will continue to collaborate with the Federal Nigerian Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to resolve potential historical tax liabilities,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
