Key takeaways:
- Local press sources state that Binance regional manager Nadeem Anjarwalla’s lawsuit was dismissed by the Nigerian High Court.
- The Nigerian financial journal Nairametrics claims that Krukrubo made the request for Anjarwalla to hire additional counsel.
Anjarwalla claimed that Nigerian government agents violated his fundamental rights when he was arrested and had his passport taken.
On June 19, Judge Inyang Ekwo made the decision to reject Anjarwalla’s lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on the grounds of “want of diligent prosecution.” Neither Anjarwalla’s nor the respondents’ solicitors had shown up in court.
In his March 28 lawsuit, Anjarwalla sought a declaration of illegality for the agencies’ acts. Tonye Krukrubo, Binance’s attorney, filed a request to withdraw from the case concurrently with the filing.
The Nigerian financial journal Nairametrics claims that Krukrubo made the request for Anjarwalla to hire additional counsel. Anjarwalla had already fled to Kenya after breaking out of prison; thus, he was not present in court. The court postponed the proceedings until June 19 in order to give Anjarwalla time to appoint new counsel.
In his lawsuit, Anjarwalla claimed that the government organizations had broken Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution’s Sections 35 (1) and (4) (as amended). In the lawsuit, he said:
“The continued detention of the Applicant by the Respondents is causing immense hardship and emotional stress on the Applicant, his wife and children and other members of his family.”
On February 26, Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, the head of financial crime compliance at Binance, were taken into custody. Gambaryan had come from the US to assist the corporation in defending itself against allegations of money laundering and tax evasion. Nigeria and the United States have been tense over the cases against Binance.
On the same basis, US citizen Gambaryan filed a complaint independently of Anjarwalla against the NSA and EFCC. The hearing for Gambaryan’s complaint is set for July 9. Krukrubo continues to be Gambaryan’s spokesman.
Anjarwalla is a dual citizen of Kenya and the United Kingdom. He is still in Kenya, and Nigeria is trying to extradite him.
