Nigerian government official reportedly demanded $150 million in cryptocurrency bribe from Binance Limited.
New York Times disclosed this on Tuesday in its report ‘Behind Nigeria’s Arrest of Binance Employee, Claims of a Bribe’.
NYT, quoting Richard Teng’s recent blog post on the allegation, said an agent fronting for a government official requested the said bribe after a meeting between Nigerian lawmakers in January 2024 before Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla who were arrested in February.
Quoting Teng, the report said the purported agent demanded “a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away,”, the figure was roughly $150 million.
“Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed,” Mr Teng wrote in his post. “We declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it as a legitimate settlement offer.”
Meanwhile, in March, the House of Representatives ordered the arrest of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform founder, Changpeng Zhao, over their refusal to honour the invitation in person.
Recall that the Nigerian government and Binance had been at loggerheads after Olayemi Cardoso, the Central of Nigeria Governor, said $26 billion was funnelled through Binance without a trace.
The Nigerian government later restricted the operation of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform and other cryptocurrency platforms.
Recall also that upon their mission to negotiate with the Nigerian government, the two Binance executives were arrested in February.
Though Anjarwalla is currently at large, Gambaryan was arraigned in April for tax invasion and other offences.
His case was adjourned till May 17, 2024.
Meanwhile as part of efforts to stabilise the Naira, the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, recently delisted the Naira from Peer-to-peer platforms such as Cryptocurrency businesses.
