President Bola Tinubu’s government will on April 4 arraign Binance Holdings Limited and its two top officials, Tigran Gambaryan and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla, on allegations bordering on tax evasion.
On Thursday, Binance, Messrs Gambaryan and Anjarwalla, listed as first to third defendants respectively, are expected to be arraigned before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on a four-count charge.
Mr Anjarwalla is Binance’s Africa regional manager. Mr Gambaryan is a U.S. citizen overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange platform.
However, Mr Anjarwalla, who had been in detention alongside Mr Gambaryan, escaped from the Nigerian authorities’ custody and fled the country.
Mr Anjarwalla escaped on Friday from the Abuja guest house, where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of Ramadan.
The Briton, who also has Kenyan citizenship, is believed to have flown out of Abuja using a Middle East airliner.
The Federal High Court’s Easter vacation, which began on March 22, will end on April 8. The Federal High Court chief judge, Justice John Tsoho, directed the transfer of the Binance case file to Justice Nwite.
Although Mr Nwite is not a vacation judge, it was gathered that the chief judge granted the judge the fiat to handle the case during vacation because it concerns dire national interest.
Hearing notices had been related to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the prosecuting agency, and counsel to other parties for the defendants to take their plea.
In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, dated March 22 and filed by the FIRS team of lawyers led by Moses Ideho, the defendants were alleged to have committed the offence on or about February 1.
Count one alleged that while carrying and offering services to subscribers on their platform, Binance, they they failed to register with the FIRS and pay all relevant taxes administered by the service.
Count two alleged that while they were offering taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform, Binance, they failed to issue invoices to those subscribers to determine and pay their value-added taxes.
Count three accused them of offering services to subscribers on their trading platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and remitting and transferring assets, and that having offered those services, they were obliged to deduct VATs arising from their operations and failed to deduct necessary VATs.
In count four, the defendants were alleged to have, while offering services to subscribers on their trading platform, aided and abetted those subscribers in unlawfully refusing to pay taxes or neglecting to pay those taxes.
The offences are said to be punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) and under provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended) respectively.
In the affidavit deposed to by Mercy Aliyu, a legal officer with the FIRS’ Litigation and Prosecution Department, she averred that investigations that culminated in the charge had substantially been concluded.
She said, “There are reasonable grounds that a prima facie case of tax evasion exists against the accused persons.”
Ms Aliyu said the following documents would be tendered during the trial, including a tax investigation report on Binance’s activities.
She also said the statements of Stephen Dazi Hoke, Saudi Abdulsalam, Saliu Olarewanju, and a letter signed by Siemon Kato requesting information from Taxpro Max, all dated March 19, would be tendered.
Besides, she said a report on the investigation of Binance’s activities concerning tax evasion, also dated March 19, and any other reports on Binance’s tax evasion would be made available to establish their case.
On March 18, Mr Nwite ordered Binance Holdings Limited to provide the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with the comprehensive data or information of all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform.
The judge granted the interim order after ruling on the ex-parte motion moved by the EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho.
The interim order was granted to enable the anti-graft agency to investigate the alleged money laundering and terrorism financing on the Binance platform.
The commission said it uncovered users who had been using the platform for price discovery, confirmation and market manipulation, which had caused tremendous distortions in the market, resulting in the Naira losing its value against other currencies.
The EFCC said the information afforded to its team of investigators by Binance showed that the total trading volume from Nigeria in 2023 alone stood at $21.6 billion.
(NAN)
