Binance CEO claims Nigeria officials demanded $150m to make issue go away

Binance, a popular cryptocurrency platform, says some unknown persons in Nigeria demanded huge payments in digital currency to make their problems in the country “go away”.

Richard Teng, the firm’s CEO, made the claim in a blog post on Tuesday. The company first disclosed the amount of the bribes – $150 million- to the New York Times.

It would be recalled that on February 28, the federal government detained top executives of Binance as part of a probe bordering on illegal operations in the country and foreign exchange rate manipulations.

The detained executives included Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan and Binance’s regional manager for Africa; and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old US citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance.

Nigeria’s government, on March 25, filed a criminal charge against Binance for “tax evasion” — the same period Anjarwalla fled detention.