MON, MAR 25 2024-theGBJournal|The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Monday filed a tax evasion charges against Binance, deepening the cryptocurrency exchange platform woes in Nigeria.
Two senior executives of the firm, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, currently in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) custody are included as defendants in a four count tax evasion charges filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Binance and the defendants are charged with non-payment of Value Added Tax (VAT), Company Income Tax, failure to file tax returns, and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.
The FIRS also accused Binance of neglecting to register with FIRS for tax purposes as well as contravening the country’s existing tax regulations.
The charges equally outlined specific examples where Binance violated tax laws, such as failure to issue invoices for VAT purposes.
Binance problems began when the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, announced in February 2024, that over $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria in the last four years from sources and users who the CBN cannot adequately identify, amidst the absorbing depreciation of the local currency, the Naira.
Binance responded by shutting down trading of the Naira against bitcoin and tether cryptocurrencies on its exchange.
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