Binance executive a flight risk- EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to reject a bail request by Binance Executive, Tigran Gambaryan, who faces money laundering charges.

Mr Gambaryan, a top executive of crypto company Binance, is on remand at a prison in Abuja.

The court ordered his remand at the prison after he pleaded not guilty to the charges on 8 April.

At the resumed hearing of Mr Gambaryan’s bail application on Thursday, the defendant’s lawyer, Mark Mordi, said the EFCC was opposed to his client’s bail request on the grounds that he constitutes a “flight risk.”

“The prosecution said we are a flight risk and should not be granted bail, because the defendant’s colleague escaped from custody.

“There is nothing incriminating my client in the proof of evidence that is attached to the charge,” the defence lawyer said.

In a heated argument between Mr Mordi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, the defence lawyer accused the anti-corruption agency of deliberately keeping Mr Gambaryan in prison pending the hearing of the bail request.

Mr Mordi recalled that the EFCC was served with his client’s motion for bail on 4 April, but that the agency only responded to the application on 15 April, outside of the statutory seven days.

“On 4 April, the prosecution (EFCC) was served with my client’s bail application. But the lawyer chose to file his reply on 15 and serve the process on us in 16 April.

“This is wrong. This is an abuse of prosecutorial powers. The normal time for response is a week. Now, he is telling us to come back (next) Monday,” Mr Mordi said while refusing to accede to Mr Iheanacho’s application for an adjournment.

However, the EFCC counsel said the prosecution was within time in filing its response to Mr Gambaryan’s bail application.

He said the anti-graft agency could not have responded to the bail application when Mr Gambaryan was “challenging the court’s jurisdiction.”

Mr Iheanacho urged the court for an adjournment to enable him respond to fresh issues that were raised by the defence lawyer in the bail application documents.

After listening to the lawyers, the judge adjourned the suit until 22 April for the hearing of the bail application.

Background

On 28 March, the EFCC charged Mr Gambaryan alongside Binance and another of the company’s top executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla.

But only Mr Gambaryan was available for arraignment before the trial judge on 8 April.

EFCC wrote in the charges that Mr Gambaryan’s colleague and co-defendant, Mr Anjarwalla, who escaped from lawful custody in Abuja last month, was on the run.

Mr Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to the five counts charged by the EFCC when read to him in open court on Monday.

The judge recorded a plea of not-guilty plea for Binance, based on the request by the prosecuting lawyer, Mr Iheanacho.

In the five counts, EFCC accused the three defendants of committing money laundering offences involving $35.4 million.

Meanwhile, a sister case involving the Binance executives is expected to come up before Mr Nwite on Friday, 19 April.

The suit being prosecuted by Nigeria’s tax agency, FIRS, borders on tax evasion allegedly perpetrated by Binance.