Detained Binance Executive Escapes from Custody in Nigeria’s Capital

One of the two executives of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, who were arrested in Nigeria has escaped from the custody of the country’s security operatives.

Sources privy to the incident disclosed this to PREMIUM TIMES, identifying the escapee as Nadeem Anjarwalla.

It was gathered that Anjarwalla, 38, fled from the Abuja guest home where he and his colleague were detained on Friday, March 22, when guards took him to a nearby mosque for prayers because of the on-going Ramadan fast.

According to insiders, there was the likelihood that Anjarwalla, who also has Kenyan citizenship, flew out of Abuja on a Middle-East airliner.

It remains unknown how Anjarwalla got on an international flight, even though his British passport, with which he entered Nigeria, is still in the hands of Nigerian authorities.

SaharaReporters had published a Reuters report about how a court said that Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan should remain in detention for at least two more weeks in Nigeria after appearing in court for the first time last Wednesday, even though they had not been charged with a crime.

Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is Binance’s regional manager for Africa, flew to Nigeria, following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites and were detained on arrival on February 26.

The two men appeared in a Federal High Court in Abuja last Tuesday.

Lawyers from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wanted the court to grant a new detention order after the initial one expired on March 12.

The Binance executives opposed this.

The judge did not make a ruling on EFCC’s request.