The legal team of a Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, has lamented his continued detention in the custody of the Kuje correctional centre, following his pending bail application before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Gambaryan’s lawyer, Mark Mordi SAN told Justice Emeka Nwite on Monday that his client’s continued stay at Kuje prison was not fair.
At the last sitting, Justice Nwite had adjourned proceedings after the counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), E. Iheanacho said he needed more time to respond to new issues raised by the defendant’s counsel in his bail application.
Nairametrics previously reported that the trial judge, had remanded the Binance agent after he pleaded not guilty to the money laundering charges preferred against him by the EFCC.
The EFCC had accused Binance, Gambaryan, and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla of allegedly conspiring amongst themselves to conceal the origin of the financial proceeds of their alleged unlawful activities in Nigeria including $35,400, 000 thereby committing an offence contrary to section 21 (a) and punishable under section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
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Some of the counts read,
“That you, BINANCE HOLDINGS LTD (A.KA BINANCE”) between January, 2022 and January, 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court not being an authorized dealer in Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market used your virtual asset services platform to unlawfully negotiate foreign exchange rates in Nigeria and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 29(1) (C) of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring And Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.
After the court’s approval of EFCC’s arraignment of the defendants, Gambaryan’s lawyer,Mark Mordi, (SAN), had urged the court to grant his client bail on liberal terms.
What transpired last week in court
At the last proceedings, the EFCC drew the attention of the court that Gambaryan’s lawyer served him a further affidavit to his bail application dated April 16.
According to Iheanacho, news issues were raised by the defense and he needs time to respond to them in the interest of justice.
He added,
“Our right to fair hearing should not be denied because justice rushed is justice denied.”
But Mordi reminded the court that his client has being in federal government’s custody for more than 14 days.
He faulted the prosecution for not filing a response to the further affidavit to his bail application.
After hearing the counsel, Justice Nwite agreed to adjourn the case so that the prosecution could formally respond as requested.
The case was then fixed for today, April 22 for hearing.
What transpired in court
At the resumed proceedings, Iheanacho told the judge that he was served with a further affidavit again and needs time to respond it,adding ” I don’t know the content so I need to know the content.”
But Mordi maintained that both parties can immediately respond to any further affidavit so that the bail application can be heard.
” My client has been in detention, honestly, what is fair is fair.
“The man’s liberty is at stake, I won’t mind my lord, if you can stand down the matter so we can go through the processes, reply, and then we proceed,” Mordi protested.
But the judge adjourned in the interest of justice, saying that counsels are entitled to respond to each others’ processes within the constitutional stipulated time frame.
He said,
“In the interest of justice, there is no need to speed up and jeopardize justice, let’s follow due process.
“As it is, I have a conference that I am supposed to attend at the National Judicial Institute(NJI), my colleagues are all there. I haven’t even done registration, so obliging you to step down to continue later in the afternoon; I am not sure of that because it is a three days conference.”
Justice Nwite further adjourned the case to 23 April, 2024 for hearing of Gambaryan’s bail application.
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More insight
- Binance and its executives are faced with two separate suits by the FIRS and EFCC; the former bordering on tax evasion while the latter charged them for money laundering and foreign exchange contravention.
- Nairametrics also recalls that the executives have also instituted a fundamental rights case against agenices of the Nigerian government, citing a violation of their constitutional right to liberty.
- On February 28, Nigerian authorities detained two senior Binance executives: Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan who serves as the regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old American who is the head of financial crime compliance at Binance.
- Following the federal government’s ban on cryptocurrency channels as part of a campaign against currency speculation, the Binance executives visited Nigeria for a meeting.
- The Naira has experienced a significant devaluation of its currency, with the naira losing 70% of its value against the dollar since the foreign exchange reforms were implemented last year, a situation worsened by a shortage of dollars locally.
- The NSA later confirmed that Nadeem had fled the country but multiple news source say he has been apprehended in Kenya.
