Nadeem Anjarwalla.
Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan fugitive who fled from lawful custody in Nigeria, is not yet off the hook with Interpol insisting that he remains wanted for extradition to the West African country to answer charges related to money laundering.
In February 2024, Mr Anjarwalla was arrested in Nigeria on allegations of laundering money using Binance, a cryptocurrency company, alongside his US-based colleague, Tigran Gambaryan.
The two were nabbed after attending meetings in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, which they were attending on invitation by the Nigerian government. Authorities then demanded of them to name Nigerian nationals trading on the Binance platform.
Speaking exclusively to the Nation on Sunday, Interpol Africa Vice-President Garba Baba Umar said that Mr Anjarwalla remains a wanted man as he broke the law by fleeing lawful custody.
“He is a fugitive on the run as he escaped from lawful custody. Interpol is following every step to ensure that he is arrested and brought to justice,” Mr Umar said.
According to Mr Umar, a retired assistant inspector-general of police in Nigeria, legal instruments and diplomatic channels will be used to ensure that the suspect, believed to be hiding in Kenya, is apprehended and extradited to Nigeria to face justice.
“We have procedures that are usually followed to make sure that [fugitives] are brought to book and that is what we are doing,” he said.
Mr Umar said an international warrant of arrest would be issued with Mr Anjarwalla placed on “red notice” .
According to Interpol, a red notice is a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
It is based on an arrest warrant or court order issued by the judicial authorities in the requesting country.
Following his arrest in Nigeria in February, Mr Anjarwalla managed to convince guards at a guest house where he was being held to allow him to go to the mosque but he never returned.
The authorities had reportedly confiscated his British passport without knowing that he owned a Kenyan one.
He was being held following a nod from the court that allowed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to detain him alongside Mr Gambaryan as the investigations into Binance went on.
His escape from the guest house resulted in the arrest of the guards who allowed him to leave.
After his escape and disappearance, the Nigerian authorities filed tax evasion charges against Binance at the High Court in Abuja. Mr Anjarwalla is named as a respondent in the case.
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Nigerian media reported that the Federal Inland Revenue Service slapped the cryptocurrency platform with charges relating to non-payment of value added and company income tax, failure to file tax returns and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.
Mr Gambaryan is being held at Kuje Prison near Abuja.
Mr Gambaryan, a former US law enforcement agent, had managed to flee Nigeria alongside his accomplices, but it remains unclear how he made a decision to head back to the West African nation.
According to reports by a section of the press in Nigeria, Mr Gambaryan had denied charges relating to committing economic crimes, saying, he was a junior staff member working for Binance at the time the crimes are said to have been committed and was not responsible for making any decisions.
Problems for the cryptocurrency company started in early 2023 when several US agencies accused the company of violating economic sanctions against Syria, Cuba and Iran by allowing criminal activities to be carried out through the platform.
Binance, however, agreed to pay $4.3 billion, which is equivalent to Sh568.2 billion at current exchange rates, in fines.
The company’s founder, Mr Changpeng Zhao, who is famously known as CZ, was in November 2023 forced resign from his lucrative position to pave way for investigations.
Mid-last week, Mr Zhao was jailed in the US after he pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws.
According to International media, he was jailed for only four months as part of a plea-bargaining deal, which will see the multi-billionaire retain most of his wealth.
A check on its social media pages revealed that Binance is still operational and urging people to try do business with them.
On Facebook, with a following of two million followers, Binance describes itself as a world leading cryptocurrency exchange. It further says that the posts made there are not in any way directed to users in the United Kingdom.
