The Nigerian Central Bureau (NCB) of Interpol has officially confirmed the completion of extradition paperwork for Nadeem Anjarwalla, an executive at Binance Holdings, who fled the country. Garba Umar, the head of the Nigerian NCB, stated during an interview on the local Sunrise Daily program on April 30 that they are actively working with various governments to issue a Red Notice against Anjarwalla and provide the necessary treaties and documentation to facilitate his extradition back to Nigeria for trial.
Umar did not disclose whether Anjarwalla is currently being held in Kenya but did mention that he was last seen in the country. Umar stated:
“We have reached out to all the countries where Anjarwalla is believed to have traveled through, and we have obtained certain information that we cannot share on this platform.”
Anjarwalla, who was initially detained in Nigeria along with his colleague Tigran Gambaryan on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, managed to escape custody on March 22 and fled to Kenya.
Anjarwalla reportedly flew out of Abuja on a Middle Eastern airline. However, it remains unclear how he was able to board the international flight, as his United Kingdom passport, which he used to enter Nigeria, is still in the possession of Nigerian authorities.
While Anjarwalla successfully evaded capture, Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. Following weeks of detention, Gambaryan’s wife and others have launched a petition to secure his release and bring him back to the United States. The petition has garnered 4,161 signatures as of the time of writing. Gambaryan’s next bail hearing is scheduled for May 17.
On March 5, Binance announced that it would cease all Nigerian naira transactions, effectively exiting the market. The platform also delisted all naira trading pairs from its peer-to-peer trading platform in late February.
On February 27, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria claimed that crypto exchanges in the country were involved in illicit transactions and pointed to suspicious flow of funds at Binance.
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