The CEO of cryptocurrency giant Binance, Tuesday, claimed that some agents of Nigerian officials demanded secret payment to make its problems “go away”.
Richard Teng, who took over from founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, said in a blog on Binance’s website that the request was made through a local law firm it hired.
“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning,” Teng said in the blog post.
“We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer, and clarified that we would engage in settlement negotiations…”
Teng said Binance listed some conditions to the Nigerian authorities before agreeing to undisclosed terms between the parties.
The Binance executive said the wants to “see the relevant petition and/or the details of all allegations” and noted that “Any settlement must be official, recorded in writing, and signed by all relevant parties.”
“Any settlement must encompass all relevant agencies and be in full and final settlement of all allegations, including any potential historic tax liabilities, if applicable, with guarantees,” Teng said.
“While the exact terms of any settlement may have to remain private, there would have to be some public acknowledgment that a resolution has been reached.”
Nigerian authorities are prosecuting Binance for tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering to the tune of $35,400,000.
The government said Binance served as a tool for currency speculators and manipulators to determine the value of the naira, a duty it said is exclusive to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Teng said Nigerian officials demanded bribe before Binance officials Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were arrested after arriving in Nigeria further engagements in late February.
A spokesman for the Office of the National Security Adviser, Zakari Mijinyawa, said the government has a good case against Binance and will “follow due process” to get justice.
Anjarwalla escaped Nigerian custody days after his arrest with his colleague Gambaryan. Teng said there was an agreement with Nigeria that Binance “contractors and employees are not to be intimidated, harassed, or detained” in Nigeria.
Teng appealed to the government to “Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past.”
“We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” Teng said.
