The Nigerian court has decided to postpone the court hearing in the Binance tax evasion case until June due to the failure to bring Tigran Gambaryan to court. Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crime compliance at Binance, was not present at the scheduled hearing, causing confusion among the parties involved.
The court ruling allowed Gambaryan to represent Binance in the tax evasion trial, where he and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional director for Africa, are facing four counts of tax evasion, including failure to register with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Binance CEO Richard Teng criticized Nigerian authorities for detaining Gambaryan and Anjarwalla during their trip to the country, despite assurances of safe passage for their meetings. In addition to tax evasion charges, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency has accused Binance and its executives of laundering over $35 million.
Gambaryan was arrested in February and is awaiting trial, while Anjarwalla was extradited from Kenya to Nigeria after escaping custody. Binance was instructed to remove the naira from its peer-to-peer services and provide detailed information on all local crypto users on its platform by an Abuja High Court as part of the crackdown on crypto trading in Nigeria.