Binance Claims Ignorance of $10 Billion Fine Imposed by Nigerian Government

[sirty143]

Binance Claims Ignorance of $10 Billion Fine Imposed by Nigerian Government

Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has denied allegations made by a Nigerian government official that it is facing a $10 billion fine. While Binance maintains its commitment to fostering a positive relationship... See more for yourself here.

Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[Stompix]

Is this just the fine or does include the ransom for the two executive arrested by the Nigerian police? 

I do wonder two things:
- how comes it 10 billions and not 10.5 billion or 8.78 billions,
- how it should be paid, in nairas or in $? 

One thing I'm not curious about cause I know the answer already is the CZ despite being held in the US has a way better time that whatever those two are having in a Nigerian prison!

[Mr. Allcrypto]

I think the Nigerian government is taking this matter too far, this case have happened before im the time of Aboki FX, and innocent people too where killed, they should easy with all the restrictions they are putting on binance, because more that 70% of the citizens are now in the crypto world and they use binance too for their payments and salary...

[yhiaali3]

10 billion dollars is a very large amount of fine!!! During my research on the Internet, I found that Nigeria’s budget for 2023 amounts to about 47 billion dollars. This means that this fine is equivalent to more than 20% of the entire state budget!! I am surprised by these numbers.

I understood from the article that Binance is not obligated to pay and it seems that the Nigerian government is trying to find a solution under the table to obtain from Binance an amount less than the value of the fine.

If the Nigerian government, which is suffering from economic problems, needs to get some money, this is not the best way, but rather a wrong policy that may lead to Binance moving away from the Nigerian market, which is a huge economic loss.

[joniboini]

Is this case still ongoing right now? The government officer denied that he mentioned any number, plus no discussion took place to force Binance to pay to free their workers unless I misunderstood what I was reading. Oddly, there is a specific number being thrown around if he never mentioned it though, sounds like an effort to shift the blame imo. No way in hell Binance is paying that much to Nigeria if they're trying their best to pay as little as possible to the US. Losing the market over there benefits them instead of pouring billions to pay the ransom.

[electronicash]

$10B is too much. AFAIK Binance paid $4B to US for same mistake. the Nigerian government is holding 2 executives though so it sound a bit like a hostage and they are asking for this ransom.

if Binance will not send the money, those 2 executives will remain in their detention center for as long as CZ is not paying up. 
According to the article, they are coercing the executives to reveal the identities of Nigerian Binance users, i'm guessing they are going to get the money from the users if Binance is not sending?

[Stompix]

$10B is too much. AFAIK Binance paid $4B to US for same mistake. the Nigerian government is holding 2 executives though so it sound a bit like a hostage and they are asking for this ransom.

At least in the US Binance tried to act by the law, in Nigeria, they didn't give a damn!
The other thing is that the US sees this as a punishment to deter future events, I'm sure Nigeria's government sees it as a much-needed cashflow!

According to the article, they are coercing the executives to reveal the identities of Nigerian Binance users, i'm guessing they are going to get the money from the users if Binance is not sending?

They will try to get them both, after all, if you look at it from a different angle, in the views of the authorities both are evading taxes and regulations, so why not fleece both? And those names would be for sure of other uses too, not just tax evasion, who would say no to such a gold mine?

[electronicash]

$10B is too much. AFAIK Binance paid $4B to US for same mistake. the Nigerian government is holding 2 executives though so it sound a bit like a hostage and they are asking for this ransom.

At least in the US Binance tried to act by the law, in Nigeria, they didn't give a damn!
The other thing is that the US sees this as a punishment to deter future events, I'm sure Nigeria's government sees it as a much-needed cashflow!

According to the article, they are coercing the executives to reveal the identities of Nigerian Binance users, i'm guessing they are going to get the money from the users if Binance is not sending?

They will try to get them both, after all, if you look at it from a different angle, in the views of the authorities both are evading taxes and regulations, so why not fleece both? And those names would be for sure of other uses too, not just tax evasion, who would say no to such a gold mine?

maybe. Nigeria still has a huge market in crypto. If binance has plans to expand more they have to comply. if they are not paying up, other countries in the Africa will also not look at them as a good business partner.

i'm sure those 2 will stay there longer like captives. the 2 executives according to the articles are not Chinese. they are American and British. i guess they are also asking US and UK to share for the ransom?   

[Stompix]

Well, things are going downhill fast

https://www.africanews.com/2024/03/26/binance-executive-detained-in-nigeria-amid-a-crypto-crackdown-has-escaped-custody//

Nadeem Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Binance in Africa, "fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport," the office of Nigeria's National Security Adviser said in a statement, calling for "whatever information that can assist law enforcement agencies to apprehend the suspect."
Anjarwalla, who holds dual British and Kenyan citizenship, had been detained in Nigeria along with another colleague since Feb. 26 when they arrived in the country following a crackdown on the crypto platform. Tigran Gambaryan, the colleague who is an American citizen, remains in captivity.

Let's see where he runs as both the UK and the US have extradition treaties with Nigeria.
But this thing is probably going to make CZ's situation even worse as he awaits trial.

[Agbe]

 Well most of your comments are correct but some of Stompix comments are from fake blog sites so they are not correct to what is happening between Nigerian government with her agencies and Binance. The born of contention between these two parties is the manipulation of dollar against the naira and that caused the inflation in the country. And by not following the National Exchange Policy, Which is tagged as "illegal transaction". So the $10 billions was imposed on them. And when the two Binance staff were arrested by the security agency DSS, a condition was given to Binance to release the staff which was to provide data of 100 Nigerians who use Binance to the government but Binance refused.

And in the process one of the arrested executive. Nadeem Anjarwalla escape from House Arrest . And now.

The above image is from one of the national newspapers and it has said it all for the extradition. And this will affect Binance and it remaining official. Stompix you can visit the local board for the both forum to get more information and not online fake blogs. When I see fake news it annoys me.

[Faisal2202]

The above image is from one of the national newspapers and it has said it all for the extradition. And this will affect Binance and it remaining official. Stompix you can visit the local board for the both forum to get more information and not online fake blogs. When I see fake news it annoys me.

This all happened and I was not aware of the news, well, dear Agbe can you confirm if somewhere the officials of the Nigerian Government mentioned that they fined $10 billion dollars? As you said according to the National Exchange Policy, they fined Binance such a huge amount. As joniboini stated, no one from the Nigerian Officials has given some number to Binance. I think this $10 billion number is not official because if the amount were official then it would have been made public by now.

Besides, if the executive of Binance has fled custody then its a question on the Nigerian officials, and this can be used against Nigerian officials as well by the country who have given citizenship to that Nadeem. I hope this will not bring any kind of difficulties for Nigerians, as I can assume most of the Nigerians are using Binance and I am glad to read that Nigerians asked for data of Nigerian users and they refuse to give them and now they have 2 people of them in custody and asking for funds. No offense but you better know how it looks. Overall, I hope this matter will solve with peace.

[Agbe]

dear Agbe can you confirm if somewhere the officials of the Nigerian Government mentioned that they fined $10 billion dollars? As you said according to the National Exchange Policy, they fined Binance such a huge amount. As joniboini stated, no one from the Nigerian Officials has given some number to Binance. I think this $10 billion number is not official because if the amount were official then it would have been made public by now.

Yes it is correct the fine was $10 Billions and Binance told them they are not paying the money and that caused the drift between them. And today news carry that the remaining staff Tigran Gambaryan said  he is not a Binance officer or agent and Binance also testify some day ago that Tigran Gambaryan is not their staff but a contractor and hire him to do some investigation for them so told Nigeria government and the DSS to release release the guy because he is not a Binance officer. And some are saying that Binance will not win the case if they take the case to Nigerian Court because Nigerian judiciary has no knowledge about cryptocurrency and they are not professional. And really I blame the government because they handle the case from the wrong perspective. You can read some information from this links.
https://nairametrics.com/2024/04/04/efcc-fails-to-arraign-binance-executive-as-gambaryan-denies-being-cryptocurrency-platforms-agent/
https://gazettengr.com/american-tigran-gambaryan-trained-70-efcc-officials-recovered-400000-for-nigeria-before-nsa-ribadu-ambushed-him-binance/
Those links will help you more.

[Sim_card]

Well most of your comments are correct but some of Stompix comments are from fake blog sites so they are not correct to what is happening between Nigerian government with her agencies and Binance. The born of contention between these two parties is the manipulation of dollar against the naira and that caused the inflation in the country. And by not following the National Exchange Policy, Which is tagged as "illegal transaction". So the $10 billions was imposed on them. And when the two Binance staff were arrested by the security agency DSS, a condition was given to Binance to release the staff which was to provide data of 100 Nigerians who use Binance to the government but Binance refused.

And in the process one of the arrested executive. Nadeem Anjarwalla escape from House Arrest . And now.

The above image is from one of the national newspapers and it has said it all for the extradition. And this will affect Binance and it remaining official. Stompix you can visit the local board for the both forum to get more information and not online fake blogs. When I see fake news it annoys me.

What I keep wondering is how did one of the officials of Binance escaped. This might become a big problem for the other guy who is still in their custody, because Nigeria government might not take this issue likely anymore. I don't think that upon what happened, Binance would still pay the money to Nigeria government, because they only have one representative there Nigeria government custody, and not two anymore. It might be that Binance will no longer offer their services to Nigeria anymore.

[Lucius]

CZ paid the fine in the US very easily, and someone in Nigeria very quickly realized that they had an opportunity to get an easy win, so they pulled their move. Of course, CZ and his company are not afraid of the "Nigerian prince", which is actually a completely secondary story compared to what is happening in the US, and who is to say that some other serious country will not make a similar move at some point?

~snip~
What I keep wondering is how did one of the officials of Binance escaped.

He probably walked into the front door of the prison like a gentleman, with a car and a fake pass port waiting for him. Given the level of corruption in that country, such a development is not at all strange.

[Igebotz]

CZ paid the fine in the US very easily, and someone in Nigeria very quickly realized that they had an opportunity to get an easy win, so they pulled their move. Of course, CZ and his company are not afraid of the "Nigerian prince", which is actually a completely secondary story compared to what is happening in the US, and who is to say that some other serious country will not make a similar move at some point?

You cannot refer the Nigerian government as "Nigerian prince"; otherwise, you are disrespecting the Nigerian community here and the wonderful people of Nigeria. The term "Nigerian Prince" is used to address Internet romance scammers, so you have no right to refer to the country in that manner.

The Nigerian government has a valid cause to pursue Binance, as the Naira has shown favourable gains since being ordered to be removed from the platform. Binance is facing multiple charges in Nigeria. The Binance rep has been imprisoned until his bail hearing application in the following days, followed by his trial on May 5. If found guilty he's going to spend a lot of time in kuje prison

Maybe you forgot that Nigeria is the most powerful black Nation and can imprisoned anyone irrespective of your country's origin if found guilty of breaking Her Law

-1

One thing I'm not curious about cause I know the answer already is the CZ despite being held in the US has a way better time that whatever those two are having in a Nigerian prison!

He might likely not survive more than 2 years in Prison here  if Binance is not playing nicely and he's somewhat found guilty and sentenced to prison.