The CEO of cryptocurrency giant Binance, Tuesday, claimed that some agents of Nigerian officials demanded secret payment to make its problems “go away”.
Richard Teng, who took over from founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, said in a blog on Binance’s website that the request was made through a local law firm it hired.
“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning,” Teng said in the blog post.
“We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer, and clarified that we would engage in settlement negotiations on the following conditions:
“Binance needs to see the relevant petition and/or the details of all allegations.
“Any settlement must be official, recorded in writing, and signed by all relevant parties.
“Any settlement must encompass all relevant agencies and be in full and final settlement of all allegations, including any potential historic tax liabilities, if applicable, with guarantees.
“While the exact terms of any settlement may have to remain private, there would have to be some public acknowledgment that a resolution has been reached.”
The Binance boss also requested that the company’s “contractors and employees are not to be intimidated, harassed, or detained.”
He said the Binance counsel relayed its conditions which were intially objected by Nigerian authorities before a later agreement.
In continuation of its engagement with Nigeria, two Binance officials Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla arrived to discuss further terms with the government but were arrested in late February. Anjarwalla escaped Nigerian custody days later.
Nigeria is prosecuting Binance of tax evasion while Gambaryan remained in custody.
Teng appealed to the government to “Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past.”
“We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” Teng said.
