Authorities in Nigeria have accused Binance and many other cryptocurrency exchanges of violating laws pertaining to money manipulation and enabling the transfer of illegal funds. As a result, Binance's activities in the largest cryptocurrency market in Africa are being closely monitored.

Nigerian authorities have singled out the exchange for breaking Nigerian regulations and for tax avoidance, with one Binance official being held in the country and another having left after being detained.

Nigerian authorities claimed that Binance, together with its Head of Financial Crime Compliance Tigran Gambaryan and regional head for Africa Nadeem Anjarwalla, "carried on specialised business of other financial institution without valid licence (sic)." These allegations were made in court documents that were provided with Decrypt.

Additionally, they were charged with manipulating the foreign exchange market and hiding the "origin of a cumulative sum of $35,400,000" as well as the "origin of the proceeds of your unlawful activities."

In February, Binance sent Gambaryan and Anjarwalla to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to meet with senior government officials as part of their investigation into crypto exchanges. As part of the investigation, Nigeria demanded that Binance provide it with information on its top 100 users in the country, along with their transaction history for the past six months.

The officials were detained on February 28th, on the order of the silent but hawkish national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, a retired policeman and former head of the country’s anti-corruption agency. No charges were initially brought against the pair, who were held by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for 14 days under the terms of a court order, which was subsequently extended.

On March 22nd, Anjarwalla, a British Kenyan, escaped custody, reportedly after he was allowed to visit a local mosque for prayers under guard. Per reports in local media, he is believed to have used a concealed passport to flee the country to an unknown destination. Nigeria is reportedly working with INTERPOL to return Anjarwalla to the country.