THE Kenya Police Service has arrested a Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from custody in Nigeria on March 25.
According to the Punch, the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) is concluding plans to extradite him to Nigeria soon.
Anjarwalla had escaped from detention in Nigeria and reportedly fled to Kenya, where the Nigerian Government tracked him down.
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The ICIR reported that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) confirmed Anjarwalla’s escape from custody.
In a statement signed by the head of strategic communication at the ONSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, the Office said a preliminary investigation showed that he fled Nigeria using “a smuggled passport”.
According to a Premium Times report, the Binance executive fled a guest house where he and his colleague were kept in Abuja on March 22.
Anjarwalla allegedly escaped after being brought by the on-duty guards to a nearby mosque for prayers in observance of the recent Ramadan fast.
He reportedly took a Middle East aircraft out of Abuja. However, it is unclear how he left on an international flight, given that the Nigerian government had seized his only passport – the British passport on him when he was arrested.
The Office added that the suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria and was scheduled to appear before the court again on April 4.
Binance employed Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British Kenyan who serves as its regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old US citizen who oversees the firm’s financial crime compliance.
The ONSA seized their passports after they were arrested.
The ICIR reported on Monday, March 25, that the Federal Government, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), filed criminal charges against Binance at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The charges accused Binance of a four-count tax evasion.
The trial judge, Emeka Nwite, sent Gambaryan to Kuje Correctional Centre pending the determination of his bail application.
The judge made the order after he pleaded not guilty to the money laundering charges the EFCC preferred against him on Monday, April 8.
The EFCC had charged Binance, Gambaryan, and Anjarwalla, who was on the run, with hiding the source of the $35,400,000 in revenue Binance made in Nigeria while knowing that the money was the product of illegal activities.
The FIRS stated that the action was intended to protect Nigeria’s economic integrity and maintain budgetary sustainability.
The ICIR reported on March 5 that Binance pulled its services out of Nigeria.
The platform asked Nigerians trading on it to remove all their naira assets, indicating that it was terminating its services in the country.
The Federal Government has been taking harsh measures against Binance management recently.
In response to the severe actions taken against it by the Nigerian government, Binance, on Tuesday, March 5, deleted all assets linked to the naira.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance