Babatunji Wusu –
Amidst grave accusations of fraud, sponsorship of terrorism, money laundering, and tax evasion, the House of Representatives has demanded the arrest of Binance Holdings Limited’s top executives.
Legislative investigation has been prompted by specific accusations made against the cryptocurrency exchange platform that resulted in the depreciation of the Naira, the currency of Nigeria.
The executives were scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Financial Crimes on Monday at a hearing.
But Binance made the disappointing decision to send its legal counsel to attend in place of the company.
The committee’s chairman, Obinna Ginger, responded sharply to this, announcing that a warrant will be issued for the executives’ arrest.
Senator Ihenyen, Binance’s defense attorney, explained the company’s executives’ absence by saying they were already detained.
Ihenyen pleaded with the committee to give the firm time to appear formally, pointing out that the Office of the National Security Adviser had recently detained two of Binance’s top personnel who had just arrived in Nigeria.
He said, “Following the arrest of two executives, other persons could not come into Nigeria because they were afraid of arrest too. Binance has responded appropriately to the demands of the committee and as our client, we are pleading that this honorable committee consider taking the report.”
However, the committee’s chairman, Ginger, insisted that the Chief Executive of Binance Holding Limited, Richard Teng, must appear.
The committee had summoned Teng in a letter dated December 12, 2023.
Ginger, while restating the resolve of the committee to rid the country of financial crimes, said, “The committee will be forced to recommend to the House to arrest Binance executives since they have failed to appear before the committee.
“As long as the committee is concerned, Binance is not at this meeting because we have said severally that we do not want representation by lawyers but the chief executives should appear before us. Binance is not here. We have taken a position on it in our last sitting that we are not going to entertain legal representation from Binance and that position stands.
“Based on the fact that Binance is not here, we need to make a recommendation to the House of Representatives for the House to invoke its powers of subpoena to issue a warrant for the leadership of Binance to be arrested and be brought to this committee to answer questions of the grave allegations levelled against them in the petitions brought to us by the Empowerment for Unemployed Youths Initiatives and Niger Delta Youth Council.
This committee has resolved to recommend to the House to invoke its constitutional powers by issuing a subpoena and a warrant for Binance executives to be arrested and brought to this committee to answer these questions relating to financing of terrorism, money laundering and other financial crimes as stated in the petition, including evasion of tax.”
