Anjarwalla, who is a United States citizen, is Binance's Africa regional manager overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange platform.
The Nigerian government has fixed April 4 to arraign Binance Holdings Limited and its two top officials, Tigran Gambaryan and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla, for alleged tax evasion.
Binance, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla, will be arraigned before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on a four-count charge.
Anjarwalla, who is a United States citizen, is Binance's Africa regional manager overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange platform.
Anjarwalla is however currently at large after escaping from the Nigerian government custody and fled the country was in detention alongside Gambaryan.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Nigerian government announced that Anjarwalla escaped from custody on Friday from the Abuja guest house, where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers.
Anjarwalla, who also has Kenyan citizenship, reportedly fled Nigeria using a Middle East airliner.
It was gathered that the Federal High Court chief judge, Justice John Tsoho, directed the transfer of the Binance case file to Justice Nwite.
It was further gathered that while Justice Nwite is not on Easter vacation, the chief judge granted the judge the fiat to handle the case during vacation because it concerns dire national interest.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that hearing notices had been related to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the prosecuting agency, and counsel to other parties for the defendants to take their plea.
The Nigerian government in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, dated March 22 and filed by the FIRS team of lawyers led by Moses Ideho, accused the defendants of committing the offence on or about February 1.
Count one of the charge alleged that while carrying and offering services to subscribers on their platform, Binance, they failed to register with the FIRS and pay all relevant taxes administered by the service.
In count two, the Nigerian government alleged that while they were offering taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform, Binance, they failed to issue invoices to those subscribers to determine and pay their value-added taxes.
The government in count three accused the defendants of offering services to subscribers on their trading platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and remitting and transferring assets, and that having offered those services, they were obliged to deduct VATs arising from their operations and failed to deduct necessary VATs.
In count four, the Nigerian government alleged that the defendants while offering services to subscribers on their trading platform, aided and abetted those subscribers in unlawfully refusing to pay taxes or neglecting to pay those taxes.
According to the Nigerian government, the offences are punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) and under provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended) respectively.
In the affidavit deposed to by Mercy Aliyu, a legal officer with the FIRS’ Litigation and Prosecution Department, she averred that investigations that culminated in the charge had substantially been concluded.
Aliyu said that “There are reasonable grounds that a prima facie case of tax evasion exists against the accused persons.”
According to her, the following documents would be tendered during the trial, including a tax investigation report on Binance’s activities.
Aliyu further said the statements of Stephen Dazi Hoke, Saudi Abdulsalam, Saliu Olarewanju, and a letter signed by Siemon Kato requesting information from Taxpro Max, all dated March 19, would be tendered.
She said that a report on the investigation of Binance’s activities concerning tax evasion, also dated March 19, and any other reports on Binance’s tax evasion would be made available to establish their case.
Recall that on March 18, Justice Nwite ordered Binance Holdings Limited to provide the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with the comprehensive data or information of all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform.
Justice Nwite granted the interim order after ruling on the ex-parte motion moved by the EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho.
The interim order was granted to enable the EFCC to investigate the alleged money laundering and terrorism financing on the Binance platform.
The EFCC said it uncovered users who had been using the platform for price discovery, confirmation and market manipulation, which had caused tremendous distortions in the market, resulting in the Naira losing its value against other currencies.
According to the EFCC, the information afforded to its team of investigators by Binance showed that the total trading volume from Nigeria in 2023 alone stood at $21.6 billion.
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