Nadeem Anjarwalla, one of the Binance executives detained in Nigeria over alleged tax evasion and other offenses, has reportedly fled custody.
According to Premium Times reports, Anjarwalla, 38, escaped from an Abuja guest house on Friday, 22 March, where he and his colleague were being held.
Guards on duty escorted him to a nearby mosque for prayers during Ramadan, and he took advantage of the situation to abscond.
The British national, who also holds Kenyan citizenship, is believed to have left Abuja via a Middle East airliner.
The circumstances surrounding Anjarwalla’s escape raise questions, as his British passport remained in Nigerian custody. It’s reported that he used a Kenyan passport to leave the country, though authorities are investigating how he acquired it, considering he had no other travel documents besides his British passport.
An Immigration official stated that the Binance executive’s escape occurred despite being accommodated in a “comfortable guest house” with certain privileges, including access to telephones. These privileges allegedly facilitated Anjarwalla’s escape plan.
Anjarwalla, serving as Binance’s Africa regional manager, and his colleague Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen overseeing financial crime compliance, were initially detained upon arrival in Nigeria on 26 February 2024. The Nigerian government brought criminal charges against the duo, leading to a court order for their remand.
On 28 February 2024, the court granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an order to remand the duo for 14 days.
Furthermore, the Nigerian government filed additional charges against Binance Holdings Limited, Anjarwalla, and Gambaryan, accusing them of offering taxable services to subscribers on their platform without registering or paying relevant taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service and, in so doing, committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as Amended).
These charges add to the legal woes facing the cryptocurrency exchange platform and its executives.