The completion of extradition paperwork for Nadeem Anjarwalla, an executive from Binance Holdings, has been confirmed by the Nigerian Central Bureau (NCB) of Interpol. Garba Umar, the head of the Nigerian NCB, stated during an interview on the Sunrise Daily program on April 30 that the organization is actively collaborating with various governments to issue a Red Notice against Anjarwalla and provide the necessary treaties, memorandum of understanding, and other documentation to facilitate his extradition to Nigeria for trial.
Umar did not confirm whether Anjarwalla is currently being held in Kenya, but he did mention that the executive was last seen in the country. Umar stated:
“We have contacted all the countries where we believe he has transited and we got some certain information which is not possible to share on this platform.”
Anjarwalla, who was arrested in Nigeria along with his colleague Tigran Gambaryan on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, escaped from Nigerian custody on March 22 and fled to Kenya.
It has been reported that Anjarwalla left Abuja on a Middle East airline; however, it remains unclear how he managed to board the international flight since his United Kingdom passport, which he used to enter Nigeria, is still in the custody of Nigerian authorities.
While Anjarwalla fled, Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to the charges. After several weeks in detention, Gambaryan’s wife and others have launched a petition calling for his release and his return to the United States. The petition currently has 4,161 signatures. Gambaryan’s next bail hearing is scheduled for May 17.
On March 5, Binance announced that it would cease all Nigerian naira transactions, effectively exiting the market. The exchange also delisted all naira trading pairs on its peer-to-peer trading platform in late February.
On February 27, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria accused crypto exchanges in the country of facilitating illicit transactions and highlighted “suspicious flows” of funds at Binance.