Efforts are underway by the Federal Government in collaboration with the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) to extradite Nadeem Anjarwalla, a top executive at Binance, who fled from detention on March 22.
Anjarwalla, along with Tigran Gambaryan, another executive of the cryptocurrency firm Binance Holdings Limited, was arrested by security agencies in February on charges of money laundering. They were detained in Abuja under the directive of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
Despite the arrest, Anjarwalla managed to escape from detention on March 22 and left the country using a Kenyan passport.
Government sources have confirmed that extradition proceedings have commenced, indicating a concerted effort to bring the fugitive back to face charges. Anjarwalla’s escape, however, is not expected to impede the legal proceedings against Binance and Gambaryan, who are scheduled for arraignment in court on Thursday on a five-count money laundering charge.
“Mr Anjarwalla’s extradition process has begun. The Federal Government is working as did with INTERPOL to extradite the fugitive to Nigeria. He’s a fugitive that escaped from lawful custody, and his other partner is still in custody and would be arraigned on Thursday alongside their company, Binance,” a source noted.
Another source revealed, “It is true that the Federal Government has commenced the process of extraditing Binance’ Anjarwalla in order to bring him back to Nigeria to answer to his money laundering case in court, among others. The arraignment of Binance and Gambaryan in court on Thursday will also aide Anjarwalla’s extradition.”
