A senior official of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance, has escaped from custody in Nigeria, officials said.
Nadeem Anjarwalla is one of the two senior executives at Binance detained in Nigeria earlier this month as the country cracks down on cryptocurrency exchanges amid an unprecedented currency slump.
''Nadeem Anjarwalla, a suspect in the ongoing criminal probe into the activities of Binance in Nigeria has escaped from lawful custody on Friday, 22 March 2024,'' the office of Nigeria's National Security Adviser said in a statement on Monday.
'Smuggled passport'
Nigeria's security agencies ''are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on the suspect,'' Zakari Mijinyawa, head of Strategic Communication Office of the National Security Adviser said.
Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager, and Tigran Gambaryan who oversees financial crime compliance, flew to Nigeria earlier this month following the country's decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites.
They were detained by the office of the country's national security adviser and their passports seized.
''Preliminary investigation shows that Mr Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport,'' the official statement said.
Binance said earlier that it was aware that Anjarwalla was no longer under Nigerian custody and that the company was working with authorities to resolve the issue, Reuters news agency reports.
Court case
The Nigerian government has been investigating the firm's executives over ''money laundering and terrorism financing transactions perpetrated on the Binance currency exchange platform,'' the authorities said.
''Until his escape, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serving as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts. The suspect escaped while under a 14-day remand order by a court in Nigeria.''
The Binance executives were scheduled to appear before a court again on April 4, 2024.
The arrest of the Binance executives came as several cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian currency, which has suffered chronic dollar shortages.
The crippling dollar shortages in Africa's largest economy have pushed its currency, the naira, to record lows after foreign investors fled. The currency has regained in recent weeks.
