The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), says the paperwork to get Binance executive Nadeem Anjarwalla extradited to face tax evasion and money laundering charges are completed and it was just a matter of time before he will be transferred back to Nigeria.
Nadeem Anjarwalla’s Escape and Rearrest
Garba Umar, Vice President of INTERPOL (Africa) Executive Committee in an interview on a Nigeria media station, Channels TV assured Anjarwalla will face justice together with his colleague Tigran Gambaryan, who is still in the custody of security agents in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Anjarwalla fled Abuja to Kenya, on March 22, after escaping from the custody of security operatives that led him to a nearby mosque for Friday prayers during the Ramadan fast. He was reportedly rearrested by Kenyan authorities.
However, the Vice President of INTERPOL (Africa) Executive Committee maintains that conversations are ongoing with the Kenyan government to release Anjarwalla and send him back to face trial in a Nigerian court.
According to Umar, “Be rested assured, we have all the cooperation and we are working on it and definitely, one day, he will be brought to justice, it’s just a matter of time. We have done all the paperwork.”
Charges and Ongoing Legal Proceedings
Meanwhile, fellow Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, is still in detention in Abuja since his incarceration in February. Per reports, he will likely remain there until at least May 17 when his bail hearing is scheduled to take place.
Both Anjarwalla and Gambaryan traveled to Nigeria in February to address concerns of the Nigerian authorities over allegations that Binance manipulated the country’s fiat currency, the naira. The naira at the time was on a free fall against the U.S dollar.
Gambaryan in the interim has entered a “not guilty plea” to charges of tax evasion and money laundering brought by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
International observers are keen to see how the Binance executives fare given that founder and former CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao recently bagged a 4-month jail term, in an unexpectedly relaxed sentencing by a U.S judge.
