By MacDonald Dzirutwe
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian authorities have asked an Abuja court to extend the detention of two Binance executives caught up in the country’s cryptocurrency crackdown after an initial warrant used to hold them lapsed this week, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance’s head of
financial crime compliance, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is Binance’s regional manager for Africa, flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites, but they were detained on arrival on Feb. 26.
They have not been charged with any crime.
The crackdown follows a period after several cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian currency, which has suffered chronic dollar shortages.
Court documents seen by Reuters show that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti-graft…
