Overview

• Nigeria has filed tax evasion charges against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and is seeking an international arrest warrant for Binance's regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who fled custody last week.
• Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan, escaped custody after guards took him to a mosque for prayers. His colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance's head of financial crime compliance, remains detained.
• The charges include non-payment of value-added tax (VAT), company income tax, failure to file tax returns, and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through Binance's platform.
• Binance ended support for the Nigerian naira on its platform after the country-wide crackdown on crypto exchanges, which authorities blame for fueling demand for U.S. dollars on the black market.
• The Nigerian government alleges that Binance processed billions of dollars worth of suspected criminal funds and set an exchange rate for the local currency, the naira.