Nadeem Anjarwalla, the executive of Binance, fled from custody and was found in Kenya by the Nigerian authorities.
Currently, the government wants to repatriate him to Nigeria.
Punchng.com verified that Anjarwalla’s whereabouts in Kenya are known, citing sources within the Nigerian administration involved in the matter.
Coordination with Kenyan authorities is being attempted in order to bring him back to Nigeria.
It is thought that Anjarwalla traveled to Kenya and fled the country via hiding.
He is accused of committing $35.4 million worth of tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering. Nigerian law enforcement agencies such as the Nigeria Police, the Kenyan Police, Interpol, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) collaborated due to the charges.
Punch also emphasized the EFCC’s continuous cooperation with foreign organizations, including as the FBI and the governments of Kenya, the UK, and Northern Ireland, in order to address the accusations.
The case began in February. Due to allegations of manipulating the Nigerian currency, Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, another executive of Binance, were placed under arrest in Nigeria.
The inquiry was then taken over by the EFCC, which brought charges against Anjarwalla, Gambaryan, and Binance Holdings Limited.
While Anjarwalla escaped on March 22, Gambaryan is still being held by the EFCC. He used his UK passport to board an aircraft out of Abuja. He was a passenger on a Middle Eastern airline, he said.
Since his UK passport, which he used to enter Nigeria, is held by Nigerian authorities, it is still unknown how he was able to board the aircraft.
Punch’s reporting also exposed the extensive participation of the military, the Department of State Services, the Police, and the National Intelligence Agency, as well as the continued interrogations of soldiers tasked with monitoring Anjarwalla.
On March 5, Binance declared that it would stop accepting naira transactions, so withdrawing from the market. Additionally, the exchange took down every pair of naira trading pairs from its peer-to-peer network.
The move was made in response to the Nigerian government’s stepped-up efforts to target those who are allegedly utilizing Binance for criminal operations and to fight money laundering.
Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has previously voiced worries about cryptocurrency exchanges in Nigeria handling criminal transactions totaling more than $21.6 billion.
Disclaimer : This article was created for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. An asset’s past performance does not predict its future returns. Before making an investment, please conduct your own research, as digital assets like cryptocurrencies are highly risky and volatile financial instruments.
