Extradition papers ready for Binance’s Anjarwalla, says Interpol Nigeria
The Nigerian Central Bureau (NCB) of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has confirmed the completion of extradition paperwork for Binance Holdings executive Nadeem Anjarwalla, who fled the jurisdiction.
In an April 30 appearance on the local Sunrise Daily program, Nigerian NCB head Garba Umar revealed that the organization is actively working with the governments of different countries to serve a Red Notice against Anjarwalla and present necessary treaties, a memorandum of understanding and other documentation to facilitate his extradition to Nigeria to stand trial.
The Interpol official did not confirm if the Binance executive is currently held in Kenya but did say that he was last seen in the country. Umar said:
“I’m not aware but what I can tell you is that the last destination I know on my record of this guy when he fled [Nigeria] was Kenya. That I can confirm to you.”
Umar added that Interpol had contacted all countries where Anjarwalla was believed to have transited, and “we got some certain information which is not possible to share on this platform.”
Anjarwalla, who was detained in Nigeria with his colleague Tigran Gambaryan on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, escaped Nigerian custody on March 22 and fled to Kenya.
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Anjarwalla reportedly flew out of Abuja on a Middle East airline. However, it is unclear how he managed to board the international flight, as his United Kingdom passport, with which he entered Nigeria, remains in the custody of the Nigerian authorities.
While Anjarwalla fled, Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to the charges.
After several weeks in detention, Gambaryan’s wife and others have called for his release. Gambaryan’s wife launched a petition to bring him back to the United States, which had 4,161 signatures at the time of writing. Gambaryan’s next bail hearing is scheduled for May 17.
On March 5, Binance announced that it would cease all Nigerian naira transactions, effectively exiting the market. Binance also said that its peer-to-peer trading platform delisted all naira trading pairs in late February.
On Feb. 27, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria argued that crypto exchanges in Nigeria were handling illicit transactions and pointed to “suspicious flows” of funds at Binance.
