Rep. Isah Dogonyaro (APC Jigawa state) recommended a motion at a public hearing on Monday in Abuja that the House of representative committee on Financial Crime should arrest the Chief Executive Officer of Binance Holding Ltd, Richard Teng over allege tax invasion and money laundering in Nigeria.
Binance is an online financial company, operating in the cyberspace of Nigeria for more than six years with not less than 20 million Nigerians on the platform. The hearing was on a petition by empowerment Fund for Nigeria Youth Initiative and the Niger Delta Youth Council of Nigeria on Several crimes allegedly committed by Binance.
Dogoyaro said the committee has earlier invited the CEO of Binance to appear and respond to question on terrorism, tax invasion and money laundering against the company but failed to appear. the committee gave him another change to appear on March 4, 2024 but he has refused to appear again. He concluded that the refusal is a big insult to the committee and to Nigerian people.
The legal Council to Binance, Mr Senator Ihenyen said Binance had responded to all the allegation against the company in writing. He said the company is also ready to provide more answers in writing if the needs arise in the cause of the hearing.
Earlier, the Nigerian Lawmakers had summoned the Binance Chief over alleged terrorism financing.
Ihenyen added that the company was concerned over the safety of its officials in Nigeria following the recent arrest of two senior officials of the company. The council explained that two top officials of the company who came to Nigeria were arrested by the office of the National Security Adviser.
The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Ginger Obinna (LP- Abia) said the committee is not entertaining any legal representative from Binance. He said the leadership of Binance should be arrested and brought to the committee to answer questions about the allegations against his company.
“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 on terrorism, money laundering and other financial crimes as stated in the petition including evasion of tax,” he said.
