KEY BACKGROUND
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla have been in Nigeria since Feb. 26 when they reportedly arrived to discuss the country’s decision to ban some cryptocurrency trading websites, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken. The office of the National Security Adviser in Nigeria detained the pair and seized their passports, according to the Financial Times. Both of their families have since pleaded with authorities to release the executives. Ahead of their detention, Olayemi Cardoso, Nigeria’s central bank governor, told reporters in February officials were concerned about “illicit flows” going through a number of crypto platforms, according to the Financial Times. He went on to say that in one year, $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria “from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.” Days later, the Binance executives were detained. The concerns about crypto trading come as Nigeria struggled with currency devaluation. In the past year, the value of the Nigerian currency, the naira, has fallen 70% against the U.S. dollar.
TANGENT
The tax evasion charges and detentions follow high-profile problems Binance has faced in recent years. In November, Changpeng Zhao, the company’s founder, pleaded guilty to Justice Department charges of breaking anti-money laundering laws and violating sanctions and agreed to pay more than $4.3 million in fines and restitutions for doing so. In June, the Securities and Exchange Commision sued Binance for operating an illegal exchange in the U.S. Months before that, in March, regulators alleged that Binance and Zhao evaded Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules. The crypto company reportedly remains under investigation from the SEC over whether the company illegally sold digital coins when it started out in 2017. Binance isn’t alone: other crypto firms, including Beaxy and Kraken, have also been hit with civil lawsuits recently as regulators crack down on the industry.
