Binance executive evades court appearance in Nigerian prison

The Nigerian Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has leveled an accusation against the Nigerian Correctional Service for its failure to produce Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan at the Federal High Court in Abuja for his tax evasion case.
According to local media, Gambaryan did not appear in court on May 22 to face charges of tax evasion brought by the FIRS.
During the court proceedings, the prosecution counsel, Moses Idehu, expressed uncertainty regarding the absence of the detained executive, who was supposed to be brought from custody. He revealed that attempts to contact officials at the correctional center had been unsuccessful.
Idehu requested a brief adjournment of the case to later in the day in order to resolve the issue. However, Judge Emeka Nwite postponed Gambaryan’s arraignment to June 14.
Binance’s counsel, T.J. Krukrubo, protested the prosecution’s failure to present his client.
Gambaryan’s lawyer, Chukwuka Ikwuazo, took the opportunity to request that the judge instruct the FIRS to remove the name of the co-defendant, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from the amended charges, as he has been declared “at large.”
The lawyer representing FIRS agreed to remove Anjarwalla’s name from the charge sheet.
Gambaryan was transferred to the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja in April 2024 after pleading not guilty to money laundering charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission.
His bail application was denied, and he remains in detention. The charges relate to concealing the source of funds generated by Binance in Nigeria, amounting to $35.4 million.
In March, the FIRS filed tax evasion charges against Binance and its executives, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla. The charges included failure to register with the FIRS, failure to pay company income tax, failure to pay value-added tax, and facilitating tax evasion.
The Nigerian government has accused the cryptocurrency exchange of exerting influence over foreign exchange rates, leading to stricter oversight of crypto trading platforms.
Nigerian authorities arrested Anjarwalla, Binance’s Kenya-based regional manager for Africa, and Gambaryan, a former United States federal agent specializing in cryptocurrencies and head of Binance’s criminal investigations team, on Feb. 28.
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