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The House of Representatives has accused the cryptocurrency company, Binance of blackmailing its members to cover up the ‘heinous allegations of financial and economic crimes’ levelled against it by the Nigerian government in a bid to escape prosecution.
Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Crimes, Hon. Ginger Obinna Onwusibe made the allegations at a media briefing on Tuesday.
Dismissing allegations of bribery made against the committee, Onwusibe said “These bogus, obnoxious, false and fabricated allegations are pure blackmail, clearly designed to muddy the waters and shift attention away from the heinous allegations of financial and economic crimes levelled against Binance and which are intended to derail the investigations by the Committee, delegitimise its constitutional, statutory and legitimate enquiry into the activities of Binance in Nigeria”.
According to him, “The sophisticated criminality of Binance is clearly demonstrated by its actions in sand carrying out the escape from the lawful custody of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the 23rd day of March 2024, of its employee, Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla, using forged Kenyan Passport (while his genuine British Passport is still in the custody of the authorities).
“It is important to emphasize that Nigerian Security and Regulatory Agencies such as the ONSA, EFCC, NFIU, SEC, CBN, etc, were already investigating the alleged criminal activities of Binance independent of the Petitions before the Committee. Clearly, the criminal activities of Binance in Nigeria had gained notoriety.
“Indeed, the criminal activities of Binance is not just a Nigerian issue but a global problem.
“It should interest Nigerians to know that on the 30th day of April 2024 the founder of Binance, Mr. Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison (down from three years demanded by prosecutors) for money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and violations in Seattle, United States (US).
“According to US officials, Zhao, just as his company Binance did in Nigeria, intentionally turned a blind eye to transactions that financed terrorism, the illegal drug trade, and child sex abuse”, he stated.
Continuing, the chairman said “I want to assure all Nigerians of the integrity, transparency and competence of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes which I have the privilege and honour to chair.
“We refuse to be diminished or deflated by the shenanigans of Binance and other enemies of Nigeria. The Committee will continue with its functions and assignments undeterred.
“We recognise that the blackmail by Binance is merely an attempt to distract and draw attention away from the serious allegations of criminality against it which is now compounded by its role in the security breach of the sovereign Nigerian State.
“It is notable that it was after it had unlawfully and criminally smuggled Mr. Anjarwall out of lawful custody while its purported Head, Financial Crime Compliance (FCC), Mr Tigran Gambaryan had been remanded to pre-trial custody at Kuje Correctional Facility, Abuja on the lawful orders of a Nigerian Court, that Binance on 7 May 2024, belatedly made allegations of solicitation of bribes purportedly made by the Committee on 8 January 2024, after four months.
It will be recalled that on 7 May 2024, Mr. Richard Teng, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BINANCE, in a blog post on Binance.com made allegations of solicitation of bribes against members of the House Committee on Financial Crimes, which was subsequently uploaded to the X (formerly Twitter) account of Mr. Teng (@RichardTeng). BINANCE holds itself out as a blockchain ecosystem and digital asset exchange.
According to the company, “On January 8, Binance employees had a face-to-face meeting with three members of the HCFC and a clerk in Abuja at the House of Representatives building for a scheduled pre-hearing engagement in private.
“The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Peter Akpanke, the Honourable Philip Agbese, and the Honourable Peter Aniekwe, as well as a clerk.
“During the conversation, the committee highlighted the important nature of the issues at hand and the lengths to which they were prepared to go to summon Binance, including issuing arrest warrants against our team and CEO and preventing our team from leaving the country”.
On how the bribe was demanded, Binance said “However, as our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations. Later that day, our local counsel – representing us at that time was summoned by the Committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us.
“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning.
“Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed. We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer, and clarified that we would engage in settlement negotiations on the following conditions: Binance needs to see the relevant petition and/or the details of all allegations. Any settlement must be official, recorded in writing, and signed by all relevant parties.
But exonerating members of the committee from any wrongdoing, Hon. Onwusibe defended that “From the above-quoted allegations of the Binance CEO, a pre-hearing meeting was held “in private” to clarify issues Binance will be confronted with at a scheduled public hearing.
The face-to-face private “meeting ended” without any demand or solicitation of bribes by the four representatives of the committee.
“The allegation is that after the end of the meeting and when the Binance team had left the meeting room, they were approached by “unknown persons” who allegedly demanded for bribes.
Thereafter, another unknown person allegedly contacted a local counsel of Binance and again solicited for bribes in cryptocurrency.
“It is most unfortunate that some Nigerians have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by Binance and sucked into the hullabaloo prevalent in the Nigerian news circle in the past few days”, he stated.
