On Monday, the Nigerian House of Representatives issued a threat to utilise its constitutional powers to subpoena and potentially arrest Richard Teng, the Chief Executive Officer of Binance Holding Limited.
This action came after Ginger Obinna, Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Crimes, issued a notice at the conclusion of an investigative hearing into a petition submitted by the Civil Society Organisation – Empowerment for Unemployment Initiative.
The petition was referred to the House for further legislative action. Concerned by the Binance Executive Officer’s repeated refusal to attend the hearings, Hon.
Obinna emphasized the Committee’s determination to compel Binance executives to appear and address questions regarding allegations of financing terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, and other financial crimes.
During the session, Mr. Senator Ihenyen, a lawyer representing Binance Group, cited concerns among the company’s executives who are not based in the country, particularly due to the recent arrests of two executives who remain in custody.
Despite this explanation, Hon. Obinna expressed dissatisfaction with the legal representation provided by the company. He reiterated the Committee’s stance that Binance’s absence and reliance on legal representation were unacceptable.
Hon. Obinna emphasized the need to recommend to the House of Representatives the invocation of its subpoena powers to issue a warrant for the arrest of Binance leadership.
This action is necessary to compel them to appear before the Committee and address the serious allegations outlined in the petitions submitted by the Empowerment for Unemployed Youths and Niger Delta Youths Council.
“This Committee has resolved to recommend to the House to invoke its constitutional powers by issuing a subpoena and a warrant for Binance executives to be arrested and brought to this
Committee to answer these questions the relationship financing of terrorism, money laundering and other financial crimes as stated in the petition including evasion of tax.
“We thank the petitioners for unearthing this grievous financial crimes going on in this country for more than six years now.
“Binance has been operating in the financial space of this country for more than six years and they have not less than 20 million Nigerians that they are exploiting.”
During the investigative hearing, Mr. Solomon Adodo, representing the Petitioner – Empowerment for Unemployment Initiative, shared his satisfaction with the outcomes achieved through their organisation’s whistle-blowing efforts.
He highlighted that their actions had prompted a cascade of investigations, including one by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The CBN’s findings alleged that over $26 billion had flowed through Binance within a single year.
“Binance does not have any proper presence in Nigeria so that when we have an issue we could go to. So, Binance was just operating in isolation, and we had situation where young men, men and women were losing money on that platform.
“Then we began to carry out thorough investigation which took a lot of time before our petition came before the House on the 5th of December, 2023.
“We now realised that in order to evade payment of taxes to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Binance is not registered in Nigeria. Binance despite the push by SEC sometime in 2022 refused to even heed to the call that SEC made and so we listed all of these in our petition.
“Binance is not registered, Binance has evaded taxes, and this is running into billions of dollars. These are monies that ordinarily would have been used to grow and develop the economy, alleviate the plight of the masses and create jobs for unemployed youths.
“We also realized again that when this government came on board, there were individuals who at some points wanted to channel funds and funnel funds through platforms that could not be easily traced and Binance was one of such leading platforms through which terrorism financing was done and money laundering.
“And in the course of this, Nigeria also lost several billions of naira, again our national security was also affected.
“And so, we took it upon ourselves as patriotic Citizens to blow the whistle and to bring a petition before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, and the House swung into action immediately.
“As you can see sometimes that started like a little whistleblowing, today the CBN is on its feet and has also unearthed the fact that over 26 billion passed through Binance in the last one year or so. The National Security Adviser is also doing their own investigation on their own part, but overall, the House is on this. Our petition is before the House of Representatives, and you see today there is a resolution.
“We are sure that Binance would be brought to answer to all of these things and to remedy every wrong that has been done to Nigerian nation and against the Nigerian people,” Mr. Adodo remarked.