Nigeria’s federal government has refuted Binance CEO Richard Teng’s claims, accusing authorities of demanding “substantial payments” to resolve the ongoing dispute.
In an official statement on May 8, Rabiu Ibrahim, Special Adviser to the Ministry of Information and State Orientation, said that the “phantom bribery claims” made by Binance and its CEO were made with the intention of undermining criminal prosecution through a media campaign.
“Binance CEO Richard Teng made false claims of bribery against unidentified Nigerian government officials who demanded cryptocurrency payments to resolve an ongoing criminal investigation against the company.
This claim from the Binance CEO lacks any substance. “This is nothing more than a diversionary tactic and an attempt at intimidation by the company to obscure the serious criminal charges it faces in Nigeria.”
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Nigeria’s response to the allegations explicitly states the amount requested by Teng. However, a blog post from the exchange’s representative on May 7 only mentioned secret cryptocurrency payments expected within 48 hours “to resolve these issues.”
Binance did not immediately respond to crypto.news’ request for comment.
Nigeria Tangle on Binance
The response followed Teng’s blog post detailing his company’s story with Nigerian authorities. The case, which lasted several years, led to a nationwide investigation into allegations of money laundering, terrorist financing and foreign exchange manipulation through illicit transactions.
Two executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwall, were also arrested in February and charged with crimes. While Gambarian is awaiting trial and bail hearing, Anzarwal escaped custody and was extradited from Kenya to Nigeria late last month.
Binance has been ordered to delist the naira from its P2P facilities as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrency trading in the West African country. The Abuja High Court also forced the exchange to submit detailed data on all local cryptocurrency users on its platform.