A Nigerian parliamentary committee is calling for the arrest of a Binance executive for allegedly enabling numerous financial crimes on the platform.
According to a report from nigerian politicsthe House Financial Crimes Committee announced plans to recommend that Congress invoke its power to subpoena crypto exchange executives if they fail to voluntarily appear before the committee.
The company's management was initially summoned to parliament following allegations from an unemployed charity and the Niger Delta Youth Council that included terrorist financing, money laundering and tax evasion. Binance chose to send legal representation instead, much to the committee's dismay.
“Binance is not here. We took the position at our last meeting that we would not accept legal representation from Binance, and that position remains unchanged,” said Committee Chair Ginger Obinna.・Mr. Onwusibe said.
Binance's general counsel, Sen. Ichen Eng, reportedly said that Binance was concerned about sending its executives after two executives were arrested last week.News of the detention was previously reported Bloomberg.
Last week, two unnamed British and American executives were detained in Nigeria's capital Abuja. The detention came a day after he arrived by plane to negotiate with national authorities over a ban on several crypto trading websites, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.
Decryption Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nigerian authorities have begun cracking down on crypto platforms following the rapid devaluation of the naira, which saw inflation rise to 29.9% in January, the highest level in decades. Such exchanges have become informal venues for establishing the value of the naira relative to other currencies and for accessing assets such as Bitcoin, which proponents often refer to as inflation hedges.
Amid the turmoil, Nigeria ordered Binance to pay a $10 billion fine for allegedly manipulating foreign exchange rates and causing the value of the naira to plummet.
Binance has already been fined more than $4 billion by the U.S. Department of Justice in November for violating anti-money laundering regulations, and founder and former CEO Changpeng Chao was fired from the company. Being exiled. At the time, the settlement absolved Binance from existing market manipulation charges.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
