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LAGOS — Nigeria’s detention of two employees of cryptocurrency exchange Binance will become indefinite should a local court approve the government’s wish to hold them beyond an initial 14-day period.
The two employees, an American and a British-Kenyan, have been held by security operatives in Nigeria since Feb. 26. Both men landed the day before in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to begin discussions with authorities after user access to the websites of Binance and other crypto exchanges was blocked.
But since being detained, the employees have not been charged. Nigeria’s anti-financial crimes agency EFCC has asked a court to authorize a detention extension, according to Reuters, while it continues an investigation. A spokesperson for the employees’ families said both men “have had limited contact with their respective embassies who were immediately informed of their detention without charge,” in a statement. Binance said it would “continue to work” with Nigerian authorities to enable its staff to return to their families.
The EFCC did not respond to questions about its reported intent to prolong the employees’ detention. A court hearing on the extension is scheduled for March 20.
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Nigerian authorities have said crypto trades, especially on Binance, are partly to blame for the naira currency’s depreciation against the dollar. Mirroring other crackdowns on tech platforms, particularly a Twitter ban in 2021, Nigeria’s escalation of its stance against Binance marks a new front in its digital regulatory approach.
Binance has stopped all its offerings in Nigeria, particularly trades that involved the naira and the USDT stablecoin. It claimed this week that Nigeria was “not yet” one of its top markets, though the country holds “extraordinary potential and we hope to continue to invest there.”
Nigeria’s central bank governor had claimed last month that more than $26 billion worth of transactions had flowed through Binance in Nigeria, but he did not provide details as to how that estimate was reached.
The Nigerian government is pushing to receive up to $10 billion in compensation for alleged damages Binance has done to its economy. But it is also supposedly seeking information on the platform’s top 100 users in the country, as the Financial Times reported.
Step Back
Binance said it has previously cooperated with Nigerian agencies, responding to 626 information requests from law enforcement over the last four years, and once restricting over 280 accounts of Nigerian residents “due to money laundering concerns.” A team visited Nigeria in the last two months of 2023 and engaged officials of the anti-graft agency in training sessions, Binance said.
The families of the detained employees — Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla — hope that Binance and Nigeria can continue discussions without both men. Gambaryan, the American, leads Binance’s financial crime compliance, while Anjarwalla (who lives in Kenya) leads the company’s government affairs in West Africa. Elahe Anjarwalla, Nadeem’s wife, said she wants her husband to be released in time for their son’s first birthday next week.
“This year his Ramadan has started very differently and my heart breaks thinking about him unable to break his fast with all of us,” she said in a statement.