Binance In Nigeria
An ex-parte motion filed in Nigeria aims to expose internal information of Binance to regulatory scrutiny. A Federal High Court in Abuja has instructed Binance to provide user data to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for an investigation into suspected financial crimes. During a court session on March 18, an EFCC operative mentioned that the agency's Special Investigation Team became aware of potential illicit activities and urged Binance to halt certain trading services. Initially, Nigerian authorities sought transaction records for the top 100 local users for up to six months, but later expanded their request to include all Nigerian customers without specifying the extent of trading activities under investigation.
Binance's challenges in Nigeria escalated with the revelation of the Abuja High Court order, which came to light about three weeks after the arrest of two Binance executives. Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were detained in Abuja on Feb. 26 following an invitation from regulatory bodies for discussions. Nigeria's central bank governor, Olayemi Cardoso, claimed that over $26 billion in untraceable funds flowed through Binance, allegedly contributing to the rapid decline of the naira since last year, although no specific data was provided to support this assertion. The government also threatened Binance with a $10 billion fine for purportedly enabling foreign exchange manipulation by permitting users to exchange naira for Tether's USDT on a large scale. In response, Binance highlighted its cooperation with Nigerian authorities since June 2020 and urged maintaining relationships with crypto stakeholders who have a history of constructive engagement. These developments follow Binance's settlement of regulatory issues in the U.S., where it agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties to the Department of Justice in a plea deal, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, stepping down as CEO and surrendering his Canadian passport amid ongoing legal proceedings.
