Local media reported that the federal government of Nigeria is working with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to extradite the Binance executive who escaped from prison in the country.
According to a government source quoted in local publication Punch, Nigeria's Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is “partnering” with INTERPOL, the FBI and the UK and Kenyan governments to arrest and extradite Anjarwala.
A second unnamed source said the extradition was aimed at returning Anjarwala to Nigeria to “answer the money laundering case in court” after the executive escaped from prison and fled the country last month.
According to a third government source, Anjarwala, “he escaped from legal custody, fled,” on Thursday of this week with Binance and his colleague, the exchange's financial crime compliance Tigran Gambarian.
On February 28, the Financial Times reported that Binance executives, who were not named at the time, were arrested in Nigeria, while the country's authorities investigated crypto exchanges.
No charges were initially filed against Anjarwala and Gambian, who were detained for 14 days at the request of the EFCC as per a court order; Additional time was granted at a hearing in mid-March.
As part of its investigation into crypto exchanges, Nigeria has asked Binance to provide information on its top 100 users in the country, including their transaction history for the past six months.
Anjarwala escape from Nigeria
It is said that Anjarwala escaped from prison on March 22 and was taken by guards to a nearby mosque to offer Ramadan prayers. The executive, who has dual British-Kenyan citizenship, surrendered his British passport but is understood to have boarded the “Middle East plane” using his Kenyan passport.
Later that day, Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) filed tax evasion charges against the exchange as well as Anjarwala and Gambian.
Following Anjarwala's release from prison, the EFCC On March 28, Binance Holdings Limited charged Anjarwalla and Gammbaryan with money laundering of $35,400,000.
The Federal High Court in Abuja is set to indict Binance, Anjarwalla and Gammbaryan on Thursday; Per Punch, the EFCC took over the case from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and arrested the Gambian.
Gambarian has accused the Nigerian government of violating his basic human rights and saying that confiscating his passport is against the country's constitution. He also demanded an apology from the prison ONSA and EFCC.
Decrypt has reached out to Binance and EFCC for comment, and will update this story if they respond.
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