Nigerian Court Discharge Binance Executives after FIRS drops Tax Evasion Charges

The Federal High Court in Nigeria has discharged Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) tax evasion case against Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, following the appointment of a Nigerian representative for Binance.

The FIRS consented to amend the charges to solely name the cryptocurrency exchange through its local representative. Following Binance and the FIRS's confirmation of Ayodele Omotilewa's appointment as the company's representative, the court dismissed the FIRS's charges against Gambaryan and Nadeem on Friday. Currently, the only other party involved in the FIRS case is Binance. Gambaryan, whose lawyers claim he has pneumonia and malaria, will not be required to attend court. However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has not dropped the names of the two executives in its money-laundering case.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) stated that Gambaryan and Anjarwalla had failed to pay taxes on cryptocurrency transactions worth billions of naira. The exchange was accused of not paying company tax and value-added tax, as well as not filing tax returns.

Whaleinsider.news earlier reported that sixteen US lawmakers claimed a week ago that Nigeria was holding Gambrayan captive. In a letter to Biden dated June 4, the lawmakers emphasized that Mr. Gambaryan is qualified as a citizen of the United States who was "wrongfully detained by a foreign government" and that the charges against him are "baseless and constitute a coercion tactic by the Government of Nigeria to extort his employer, Binance." While Anjarwalla managed to escape custody on March 22, Gambrayan has been in Kuje custody for 110 days.

According to reports by local media, the application for an order for the enforcement of fundamental rights will be heard at the next hearing in the money-laundering case on June 19, while the trial is scheduled to resume on June 20.

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