Dennis Erezi
Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Friday dropped the tax charges against Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crime compliance and his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla who escaped from detention.
FIRS spokesman Dare Adekanmbi made the disclosure on Friday.
The government agency in late March accused Binance and two of its senior executives Tigran and Anjarwalla of four counts of tax evasion.
A Binance spokesman on Friday said “Tigran will no longer need to appear in court for the FIRS case. This means that Binance is the sole defendant in this case.”
Binance, however, stated that both executives are still being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for seperate charges. The EFCC trial is due to continue on Thursday, June 20 and Tigran will remain detained at Kuje prison.
“This clearly shows that any issues between the Nigerian authorities and Binance can be resolved without holding my husband in prison,” Tigran’s wife Yuki Gambaryan said in a Binance statement.
The Nigerian government accused Binance of non-payment of Value-Added Tax (VAT), Company Income Tax, failure to file tax returns, and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.
Binance also failed to register with FIRS for tax purposes and contravened existing tax regulations, the government said.
The Nigerian government said Binance’s failure to collect and remit various categories of taxes as mandated by Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007 violates Nigerian laws.
“Section 40 of the Act explicitly addresses the non-deduction and non-remittance of taxes, prescribing penalties, and potential imprisonment for defaulting entities,” FIRS said.
The charges detailed specific instances where Binance purportedly violated tax laws, such as failing to issue invoices for VAT purposes, thus obstructing the determination and payment of taxes by subscribers.
“Any company that transacts business in excess of N25 million annually is deemed by the Finance Act to be present in Nigeria.”
