Officials in the Nigerian government have been accused of begging for $150 million from global cryptocurrency giant Binance to make recent fraud charges “go away”.
The revelation was made by Richard Teng, an executive at Binance, News About Nigeria reports.
The development follows a meeting between Binance executives and Nigerian lawmakers. It is unclear whether lawmakers were involved in demanding the alleged bribes, however, this publication understands that Binance first disclosed the amount of the bribes to the New York Times.
Recall that two senior Binance executives Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan who serves as the regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old American were on February 28 detained over a charge of financial crime compliance at Binance.
Both executives had visited Nigeria following the crackdown on various cryptocurrency trading platforms by authorities. They are apprehended by the Office of the National Security Adviser with their passports confiscated.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) eventually filed legal proceedings against Binance, alleging four instances of tax evasion. Recently, the Federal High Court has adjourned the case against the company and its executives to May 17.
Teng and other Binance executives have denied the allegations, labeling them as “meritless and illegal”. They further vowed not to be strong-armed into making any illegal payment.
In a blog post on the Binance website, Teng wrote, “A significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away…The message from the Nigerian government is clear. We must detain an innocent, mid-level employee and a former U.S. federal agent, and place him in a dangerous prison in order to control Binance.”
Binance was reportedly asked to pay the alleged bribe into a secret crypto account on its exchange.
The Nigerian National Security Agency has yet to comment on the latest development.
