Detained Binance Executive Appears In Court
The Nigerian government is set to arraign Binance Holdings Limited and its two officials, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla on allegations bordering on tax evasion and money laundering on Thursday.
Gambaryan, the company’s head of financial crime compliance, arrived at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday morning for his arraignment.
Ibom Focus had reported that Gambaryan’s colleague, Anjarwalla escaped from the custody of Nigerian authorities two weeks ago.
According to AIT, the trial is slated for the reading of charges and taking of the defendant’s plea today (Thursday).
The first count of the complaint says that while transporting and offering services to subscribers on their platform, known as Binance, the defendants neglected to register with the Federal Inland Revenue Service and pay all appropriate taxes controlled by the service.
Count two states that while providing taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform, Binance, they failed to send invoices for the purpose of assessing and paying their value-added taxes (VATs).
Count three accuses them of providing services to subscribers on their trading platform in the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, as well as the remittance and transfer of those assets, and that as a result of those services, they were required to deduct VATs, which they failed to do.
For the fourth count, the defendants were accused of aiding and abetting subscribers on their trading platform to unlawfully refuse or neglect to pay taxes. The violations are said to be punished under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993 (as amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act of 2007 (as amended), and Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended), respectively.
