Binance Executives to Face Money Laundering Trial Next Week
The Federal High Court will hear the money laundering case against crypto exchange Binance and two of its executives next week.
According to a report by Reuters, the case comes more than a month earlier than planned, after defence lawyers asked for the date change, the prosecutor said on Monday.
The next court hearing, originally scheduled for Oct. 11 has now been fixed for Sept. 2.
Binance and the executives – U.S. citizen and head of financial crime compliance Tigan Gambaryan, and the exchange’s British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla – have been charged with laundering more than $35m.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is also facing accusations of tax evasion.
Both Binance and Gambaryan have denied the charges. Anjarwalla escaped from detention and left Nigeria before the trial started.
Gambaryan has been detained in Nigeria since February and his health has deteriorated in prison, his wife Yuki Gambaryan said this month.
She appealed to the Nigerian government to drop the charges against her husband and release him on health grounds and also asked the U.S. government to help secure his release.
Nigeria has blamed Binance for its currency weakness after cryptocurrency websites became the platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian naira as the country grappled with chronic dollar shortages and its currency fell to a record low.
Binance said in March it would stop all transactions and trading in naira after a country-wide crackdown on crypto exchanges that have been blamed by authorities for feeding a black market for foreign exchange.
It would be recalled that In July, Gambaryan was whisked into the courtroom in a wheelchair.
However, when the matter was called, Gambaryan who was dressed in a black T-shirt with blue jeans trousers, stood up from the wheelchair and walked slowly into the dock.
The EFCC lawyer, Ogechi Ujam, told the court that though the matter was scheduled for the continuation of trial, the commission’s lead counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, was not in court.
Ujam had prayed the court to stand down the matter to enable Iheanacho to conduct the trial.
Lawyer to Binance, Babatunde Fagbohunlu, (SAN), and Mark Mordi, who represented Gambaryan, did not oppose the application.
Justice Emeka Nwite stepped down on the matter.
Justice Emeka Nwite had, on July 5, ordered the management of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to release the medical certificate of Gambaryan on or before July 16.
The judge gave the order following an application by Gambaryan’s lawyer.
Mordi had prayed the court to summon the medical doctor at the health facility of Kuje Correctional Centre, to explain why he had allegedly refused to make available his client’s medical report despite an earlier court order
