A senior official of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who had been detained in Nigeria for alleged tax evasion and other offences, escaped custody on Friday, March 22, 2024, a day after the Nigerian government slammed a four-count criminal charge on him.
Nadeem Anjarwalla, 38, escaped from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty took him to a nearby mosque for prayers in observance of the ongoing Ramadan fast.
The Briton, who also holds Kenyan citizenship, took advantage of the moment of prayer to discreetly make his unlawful departure.
Officials responsible for the custody of the suspect were later arrested, and investigation started to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape.
On Monday, the office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser said Mr Anjwaralla “fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport”.
It is believed that the executive flew out of Abuja using a Middle Eastern airliner.
The Binance executive was detained along with another colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, on February 26 when they arrived in Nigeria to discuss the country’s ban on cryptocurrency trading websites like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Gambaryan, a US citizen, remains in custody, with the two executives due to appear in court on April 4.
On March 22nd, the Nigerian government filed a new four-count charge against Binance, Mr Anjarwalla, and Mr Gambaryan at the Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing them of providing services to subscribers on their platform without registering with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to pay all applicable taxes.
The defendants were also charged with providing taxable services on their platform without issuing invoices for the applicable value-added taxes.
Following the dramatic escape, Nigeria is currently engaged in discussions with Interpol to secure an international arrest warrant for Anjarwalla, Nigeria’s national security adviser told Reuters on Monday.
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