Binance executive remains absent from Nigerian court proceedings as prison fails to produce them

The Nigerian Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has alleged that the Nigerian Correctional Service failed to produce Tigran Gambaryan, an executive from Binance, at the Federal High Court in Abuja for his tax evasion case.
According to reports, Gambaryan did not appear in court on May 22 to face charges of tax evasion brought by the FIRS.
During the court proceedings, the prosecution counsel, Moses Idehu, expressed uncertainty about the detained executive’s absence, as he was expected to be brought from custody. It was revealed that attempts to contact officials at the correctional center were unsuccessful.
Idehu requested a brief adjournment of the case in order to resolve the issue later in the day. However, Judge Emeka Nwite postponed Gambaryan’s arraignment to June 14.
T.J. Krukrubo, counsel for Binance, protested against the prosecution’s failure to present his client.
Gambaryan’s lawyer, Chukwuka Ikwuazo, seized the opportunity to request the judge to instruct the FIRS to remove the name of the co-defendant, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from the amended charges, as he has been declared “at large.”
The FIRS lawyer agreed to remove Anjarwalla’s name from the charge sheet.
Gambaryan was transferred to the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja in April 2024 after pleading not guilty to money laundering charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission. His bail application was denied, and he remains in detention. The charges are related to concealing the source of funds generated by Binance in Nigeria, amounting to $35.4 million.
In March, the FIRS filed tax evasion charges against Binance and its executives, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla. The charges included failure to register with the FIRS, failure to pay company income tax, failure to pay value-added tax, and facilitating tax evasion.
The Nigerian government has accused the cryptocurrency exchange of manipulating foreign exchange rates, leading to increased scrutiny of crypto trading platforms.
Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional manager for Africa based in Kenya, and Gambaryan, a former cryptocurrency-focused federal agent in the United States and head of Binance’s criminal investigations team, were detained by Nigerian authorities on Feb. 28.
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