The Nigerian Government has successfully located Nadeem Arjarwalla, an executive from Binance, in Kenya after his escape from custody. Efforts are now underway to extradite him back to Nigeria, with the collaboration of Interpol and the Kenyan police.
Arjarwalla had gone into hiding upon arriving in Kenya, as reported by local media outlet Punch. He had initially traveled to Nigeria in February, where he was detained alongside another Binance executive, following allegations of manipulating the country’s fiat currency, the Nigerian naira. The investigation into the matter is being led by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), which has charged both executives with five counts related to money laundering.
However, Arjarwalla managed to escape custody on March 22 and boarded a flight out of Abuja, the Nigerian capital. He reportedly flew with a Middle East airline, although it remains unclear how he was able to board the international flight without his United Kingdom passport, which is still in the possession of Nigerian authorities.
According to an immigration official, Arjarwalla used a Kenyan passport to flee the country, and authorities are now investigating how he obtained it, considering he had no other travel documents while in custody. Meanwhile, the other Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, pleaded not guilty to the charges and his case has been adjourned until April 19. Gambaryan’s wife has launched a petition to bring him back to the United States, garnering 3,373 signatures at the time of publication.
In response to the situation, Binance announced on March 5 that it would cease all naira transactions, effectively exiting the Nigerian market. The exchange had already delisted all naira trading pairs on its peer-to-peer platform in late February. The Central Bank of Nigeria had previously raised concerns about crypto exchanges in the country being involved in illicit transactions, specifically highlighting “suspicious flows” of funds at Binance.
(Source: Modified from Cointelegraph)