•Binance chief and EFCC operative in court yesterday
The scheduled arraignment of Binance Holdings Limited and two of its executives for alleged tax evasion was stalled yesterday over a complaint that one of the executives had not been served with the charge sheet.
Counsel for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which is prosecuting the case, Moses Ideh, told the court that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission denied the court bailiff access to the detained Binance executive, reports The PUNCH.
The two executives charged alongside the firm are Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from the custody of the National Security Adviser and is currently on the run.
Anjarwalla was absent from court yesterday.
The FIRS lawyer, Ideh, said the bailiff was unable to serve the charge sheet on Gambaryan, who was in the custody of the EFCC.
Ideh said, “My Lord, we have not been able to serve a copy of the charge on the second defendant. We mobilised the court bailiff to serve the second defendant but he was denied access, too.”
He, therefore, made an oral application to serve the charge sheet on Gambaryan in the courtroom, through his lawyer, Chukwuka Ikwuazo (SAN).
As Ikwuazo raised no objection to the application, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja granted it.
The FIRS lawyer then urged the judge to stand the case down or adjourn to give Ikwuazo time to study the charges and prepare his client’s defence.
The judge, in his ruling, settled for an adjournment instead of a stand-down.
“In the light that he has just been served, he should be allowed time to study the charges. The matter is hereby adjourned till April 19 for arraignment,” the judge held.
In the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, the FIRS alleged that Binance Holdings Limited failed to register with its agency, thereby evading taxes.
The FIRS also alleged that while the firm was offering taxable services to subscribers on its trading platform, it failed to issue invoices to its subscribers for the purposes of determining and payment of its value-added taxes.
Financial Times had on February 28 reported that two Binance executives were arrested and detained after they flew into the country as a result of a ban on their website.
The Federal High Court in Abuja subsequently ordered Binance to provide the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission with comprehensive information on all persons from Nigeria tradin/
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, yesterday promised that the International Criminal Police Organisation will soon re-arrest Anjarwalla, the Binance Regional Africa Manager, who escaped from custody in Nigeria.
Egbetokun said this while fielding questions from journalists at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja.
Egbetokun said, “I am not going to tell you what INTERPOL is doing, but I must tell you that we are doing a lot. I can assure you that the suspect will be re-arrested.”
Anjarwalla, 38, escaped from custody on Friday, March 22, 2024, from a ‘safe house’ where he and his colleague were detained.
Meanwhile, the money laundering charges preferred against Binance Holdings Limited and its officialby the EFCC was adjourned till April 8.
Justice Nwite adjourned the matter for ruling after listening to the parties’ submissions on the service of the charge on Binance Holdings Limited.
The defendants; Binance Holdings Limited and Tigran Gambaryan were meant to be arraigned yesterday on five charges bordering on money laundering but the case was stalled following objection from the counsel for the second defendant, Mark Mordi, (SAN).
The EFCC had specifically accused Binance, Gambaryan, and fleeing Anjarwalla of concealing the source of the total sum of $35,400, 000 generated as revenue by Binance in Nigeria which constituted proceeds of unlawful activity.
The anti-graft agency said the offences, which were committed between January 2023 and December 2023 in Abuja, were contrary to and punishable under Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
During the proceedings, Mordi contended that his client could not be arraigned following the failure of the EFCC to perfect service on Binance Holdings Limited.
Mordi said, “My Lord, this matter is premature. The prosecution ought to have served the first defendant but that has not happened. It is a joint suit, the prosecution should do the needful. We can’t proceed having failed to serve the first defendant. “
But the counsel for the EFCC, E.E. Iheanacho, disagreed with him.
He noted that the second defendant was a representative of the first defendant in the country, adding that the charge was servred on him on behalf of the company but it was rejected.
