The court in Nigeria considered the arguments of the prosecution in the case against Binance and Tigran Gambaryan, Vice president for Global Intelligence and Investigations of the exchange. Premium Times writes about this.
The second witness in the trial was the deputy head of the Central Bank of the country, Olubukola Akinvumi. According to him, the Department of Payment policy and Regulation headed by him in the Department of Payment System Management did not provide the platform with a license to operate in Nigeria.
The official clarified that the Central Bank monitors the situation in the context of the SEC and separately the activities of organizations within the CBN. The deputy chairman of the Central Bank indicated that the department was aware of the nature of Binance's business.
Akinvumi explained that the platform's activities are conducted on the company's website, binance.com , and through its mobile apps. He named Binance Pro and Binance Lite as the latter.
"To make transactions, [the exchange's] clients use a payment system to transfer or make payments to each other. These traders usually trade under pseudonyms [...] and they are not authorized by CBN," Akinvumi pointed out.
He added that transactions are carried out on the Binance Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platform provided by the organization.
"The company undertakes P2P transactions, either using a bank account in the bank of Nigeria already held by users on the exchange, or a wallet account provided to it in naira," the official explained.
According to Akinvumi, the materials provided by the prosecution demonstrate that the exchange's proposed deposit and withdrawal of naira through cash link [the essence of the EFCC charges] is a regulated activity. It is carried out by banks and other institutions that require CBN registration.
According to the official, other materials show various Binance initiatives regarding customer training on the use of this fiat gateway. Evidence is also attached indicating that the platform charges withdrawal fees.
The court has scheduled the next hearing in the process for July 16.
Recall that in addition to tax evasion and money laundering, the Nigerian authorities accuse Binance of conducting specialized financial activities without a license. Potentially, the company faces a fine of $ 10 billion.
In June, the Federal Tax Service of Nigeria dropped charges against Gambarian for tax evasion. He is still being held in prison, and members of the U.S. House of Representatives French Hill and Chrissy Hoolahan visited him the same month.
Earlier, the exchange was required to provide the data of all users from Nigeria and their transaction history. The platform was also required to settle any outstanding tax liabilities.