Nigeria detaining Binance executives creates a risky precedent, according to the CEO

After its executives were invited to Nigeria and subsequently arrested as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance warned the African nation on Tuesday of creating a dangerous precedent.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, and two of its executives are being tried separately for money laundering and tax evasion, a move the business is contesting.

CEO Richard Teng declared in a statement that it was time to voice opposition to the imprisonment of U.S. citizen and head of financial crime compliance at Binance, Tigran Gambaryan.

The other executive, a British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa named Nadeem Anjarwalla, left Nigeria in March.

Teng stated that in January, executives from Binance had their first discussions with Nigerian authorities in that nation.

In a follow-up meeting on February 26, he stated that the authorities had declared the Binance concerns to be matters of national security and that they wanted the exchange to remove the naira from its site and disclose “granular-level” information on every Nigerian user.

After that, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were taken into custody.

During the case, Teng has made few remarks since February. “To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng declared.

“For spurious reasons,” Teng said that Gambaryan had been detained in Nigeria for almost two months.

Early in March, Binance declared that it will no longer be accepting any new naira transactions.

“When we made this extraordinary move, we hoped that our coworkers would be freed and that Binance could carry on collaborating with the Nigerian authorities to address any other issues. Sadly, it did not occur,” Ten remarked.

He stated that Gambaryan ought to be permitted to return home while Binance and the Nigerian government work out any kinks.

“We will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” he stated.