A court in Nigeria has postponed the tax evasion case against Binance until April 30, allowing the nation’s tax authority additional time to address a request made by the cryptocurrency exchange. A lawyer representing Binance, Chukwuka Ikwuazom, requested on the same day for the court to annul an order that permitted court documents to be sent to the company via email.
Since Binance lacks a physical office in Nigeria, Ikwuazom argued that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) did not secure court approval to serve documents to Binance from outside the country. He stated, “Overall, the order for substituted service granted by the court on February 11, 2025, on Binance—which is registered and resides in the Cayman Islands—is inappropriate and should be revoked.”
The FIRS filed a lawsuit against Binance in February, asserting that the exchange owed $2 billion in back taxes and should compensate $79.5 billion for purported damages to the local economy, claiming that Binance’s operations had a destabilizing effect on the country’s currency, the naira, which Binance refutes. The agency also reportedly contends that Binance is responsible for corporate income tax in Nigeria due to its “significant economic presence” there. The FIRS is seeking a court ruling for the exchange to pay income taxes for 2022 and 2023, alongside a 10% annual penalty on any unpaid amounts and an interest rate of nearly 27% on past-due taxes.
### Nigeria’s Legal Background with Binance
In February 2024, Nigerian authorities arrested Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla on charges of tax fraud and money laundering. The tax charges against them were dropped by June, while the remaining charge against Gambaryan was dismissed in October.
Anjarwalla managed to escape custody and fled to Kenya in March of the previous year, and he is reportedly still unaccounted for.
Gambaryan, an American citizen, returned home in October after reports indicated that his health had worsened during his detention, suffering from pneumonia, malaria, and a herniated spinal disc that might require surgery.
Binance halted naira currency deposits and withdrawals in March 2024, effectively withdrawing from the Nigerian market.