Kenyan police have apprehended Nadeem Anjarwalla, a high-ranking official of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, after he fled from Nigeria amidst a federal crackdown aimed at stabilizing the naira. Anjarwalla had managed to escape Nigerian custody just weeks before his capture.
The arrest follows concerted efforts by the Nigerian government to locate Anjarwalla, which led them to track him down in Kenya. This development was confirmed by Kenyan government sources, and Anjarwalla is now under police custody in the East African nation.
The pursuit of Anjarwalla involved multiple law enforcement and regulatory bodies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and the Kenyan Police Service. These agencies have been collaborating to arrange the extradition of the Binance official back to Nigeria.
In March, the EFCC had highlighted its ongoing efforts to extradite Anjarwalla in a monthly bulletin, underscoring the seriousness of the charges against him which include tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering amounting to $35,400,000. The case against Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, who is already in custody, involves significant allegations of disrupting Nigeria’s forex market.
This international operation has seen cooperation from several global entities including the FBI, and the governments of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and Kenya, indicating the high stakes involved in this case related to financial regulations and cryptocurrency operations.
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