Nigeria’s central bank governor Olayemi Cardoso has said that Binance operation in Nigeria has been used to funnel “illicit” and “suspicious” funds.
Nigeria recently began a clamp down on cryptocurrency exchanges as it battles to stabilise the volatile foreign exchange that has seen the naira lose its value against the US dollar.
“Certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities,” Cardoso said on Tuesday after a meeting of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee.
“In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.”
The CBN governor said the authorities are working on controlling the situation and shutting out market manipulators.
Binance has come under intense regulatory scrutiny in recent weeks in Nigeria and the United States.Â
Bayo Onanuga, a spokesperson for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu accused Binance of “hijacking” the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in determining the value of naira in foreign exchange.
Although Binance claimed that it is committed to adherence to local regulations and laws in Nigeria, Onanuga urged government agencies to move against the cryptocurrency platform and suggested another ban on cryptocurrency exchange in Nigeria.
“Binance, facing regulatory showdown in many countries, and causing disruptions in the currency market, should not be allowed to dictate the value of the Naira, not on its crypto exchange platform,” Onanuga tweeted.
Last Friday, an American judge asked Binance Holdings Ltd (BHL) to pay $4.3 billion for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws in a settlement.
US District Judge Richard Jones in Washington state approved a plea agreement between Binance and federal prosecutors which calls for the company to pay a fine of $1.8 billion and forfeiture of $2.5 billion.
“Binance profited from the US financial system without playing by its rules and, as a result, criminals used the exchange to move hundreds of millions of dollars of stolen funds and illicit proceeds,” the government said in its sentencing memorandum.
It said the penalty was the largest ever imposed against a money services business and was “commensurate with the severity of Binance’s criminal conduct.”
