A Federal High Court in Abuja has mandated crypto trading platform, Binance to provide comprehensive information of all prominent Nigerian users trading on its platform to the country’s economic anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Emeka Nwite granted the interim order following an ex parte motion application filed by EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho to enable the agency unravel the alleged money laundering and terrorism financing on Binance.
An affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Hamma Bello, an operative of the EFCC attached to the Special Investigation Team (domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser- ONSA) stated that the motion was raised because the agency “received an intelligence stating that nefarious activities were being undertaken on Binance”.
“The team uncovered users who have been using the platform for price discovery, confirmation, and market manipulation, which has caused tremendous distortions in the market, resulting in the Naira losing its value against other currencies”, it added.
The crackdown follows a government crackdown on the activities of crypto exchanges suspected of fixing the dollar-to-naira exchange rate on their platforms.
This move was backed by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga who said Binance blatantly sets exchange rates for Nigeria and hijacks the CBN’s role, adding that it is a platform that suffers access limitations from multiple jurisdictions, such as the US, Singapore, Canada, and the UK.
