TAX EVASION: COURT FIXES APRIL 4 FOR BINANCE EXECUTIVES ARRAIGNMENT

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The arraignment of Binance Holdings Limited and its officials, Tigran Gambaryan, and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla, on allegations of tax evasion has been fixed for April 4, 2024.

The date was contained in the hearing notice sent to the parties involved in the matter.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service had on Monday filed charges bordering on tax evasion against the company and its officials.

In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, Binance was accused of failing to register with the FIRS for the purpose of paying all relevant taxes administered by the service.

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The FIRS also alleged that while it was offering taxable services to subscribers on its trading platform, the company failed to issue invoices to those subscribers for the purposes of determining and payment of its value added taxes.

The company and its executives were further accused of offering services to subscribers on their trading platform in the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and in the remittance and transfer of those assets, and that having offered those services, was obliged to deduct VATs, and failed to deduct necessary VATs, arising from their operations.

FIRS, in addition, claimed that the defendants had while involved in the offering of services to subscribers on their trading platform, did aid and abet those subscribers to unlawfully refuse to pay taxes, or neglect to pay those taxes.

The offences were said to be punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) and under provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended) respectively.

Financial Times had on February 28 reported that two executives of the company were arrested and detained after they flew into the country as a result of a ban on their website.

On March 12, 2024, the FT reported that the EFCC asked Binance to share data on its 100 top users in Nigeria as well as all transaction history for the past six months.

According to the report, the request is at the centre of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria.

On Friday, one of the company’s executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla, fled the country after escaping from a safe custody.