The house of representatives has denied demanding bribe from Binance, a popular cryptocurrency platform.
On Tuesday, the cryptocurrency giant said some unknown persons in Nigeria demanded huge payments in digital currency to make their “problems in the country go away”.
On February 28, the federal government detained two 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.
Speaking on the issues, Richard Teng, the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO), in a blog post shared with TheCable, said despite multiple requests, Binance has still not received details of the allegations, “and our employees, therefore, inquired if there was an opportunity to submit our responses in writing and in the absence of a public hearing”.
“There were a number of reasons for that, including the sensitivity of the information and getting the opportunity to see the allegations in full and prepare a thorough substantive response,” he said.
“The meeting ended with the Chair confirming they would consider the matter and revert through Binance’s local counsel.
“However, as our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations.
“Later that day, our local counsel — representing us at that time — was summoned by the Committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the Committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us.
During plenary session on Wednesday, Kama Nkemkanma from Ebonyi state, raised a “point of privilege”, saying the house never met with Binance and no bribe has ever been demanded.
“This house can never allow itself to be talked down,” he said.
The lawmaker said the allegation is capable of “bringing the house into disrepute” and should “never be taken lightly”.
Ruling on the point of privilege, Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house, said the clerk should “take note”.
“We need to use whatever media available to us to refute this allegation,” Abbas said.
“Nothing like that has ever happened. No committee of the house has ever engaged this man.”
