Gullibility may have played a hand in the quite mysterious escape from custody of Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla in the hands of security officials in Abuja last week. Mr Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager is one of two company executives detained by the Nigerian government due to their crypto platform’s alleged culpability in causing the foreign exchange instability that unnecessarily weakened the Naira in the past months.

The modest good-natured sentiment around Ramadan seemed to have led to Mr Anjarwalla’s escape on Friday, 22 March according to PREMIUM TIMES’ reporting. A window of opportunity opened for the 38-year-old to make a break for it after one of his guards reportedly led him to a nearby mosque to observe prayer.

After the prayer then came the report that the detainee had flown out of Nigeria via a Middle Eastern carrier. Expectedly, that has created a puzzle for the Nigerian authorities to solve being that the exec’s continual detention in custody alongside his partner, Tigran Gambaryan matters for the Federal Government’s efforts to get a damage claim from Binance.

ALSO READ: Nigeria seeks around $10billion retribution claim over Binance messing up its economy

The crypto company, after a plea deal approved in February, had been slammed with $4.3billion for violating the United States anti-money laundering laws. It seemed like the Nigerian authorities were going to be able to do the same having already asked for a $10billion retribution claim and also an extension of a 14-day detention of the executives when they refused an official request to release the identities of Binance users in Nigeria, some of whom are suspected of terrorism.

The National Security Adviser’s office is understood to be investigating the breach when it was asked, and still, there is no confirmation concerning what has happened.

So far the charges preferred against Binance Holdings Limited, Mr Anjarwalla and Mr Gambaryan, include offering services to subscribers on their platform yet failing to register with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to pay all relevant taxes, which is in breach of Section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act of 1993 (as Amended).

Another charge relates to the failure to issue invoices for transactions carried out on the Binance platform, thereby disabling the opportunity to recover tax from the mysterious Nigerian users patronising its platform.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in its formal suit filed today at the Federal High Court in Abuja, explained how the crypto exchange had broken Nigerian tax laws.

Any company that conducts business exceeding N25 million annually is deemed, by the Finance Act, to be present in Nigeria.

According to this rule, Binance falls into that category. So, it is obligated to pay taxes like Company Income Tax (CIT) and also collect and remit Value Added Tax (VAT). However, Binance did not adhere to these requirements, thus violating Nigerian laws and potentially facing investigation and legal action for this infraction.

It was important for the authorities to keep a hold on the executives while efforts went on to get the claims and also so that evidence or data would not be tampered with. Now with this escape, officials find themselves on a totally different terrain that evokes the memory of making arrests across international borders.

Possibly there would be tightness of security around Binance’s head of financial compliance Mr Tigran Gambaryan. Now that his partner has vanished, only he gets to keep the next court date set for Thursday, 4 April. If he talks, his involvement in handling sensitive roles for Binance may provide vital information that may help their prosecution or justice in the eyes of officials working to steady the economy.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.