Court freezes N548.6 Million belonging to ‘ByBit, KuCoin’ Nigerian crypto users

[KingsDen]

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigeria-seeks-815-bln-economic-losses-back-tax-against-binance-court-document-2025-02-19/

Nigeria suing Binance for $81.5 billion in economic losses and back tax

"ABUJA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Nigeria has filed a lawsuit seeking to compel cryptocurrency exchange Binance to pay $79.5 billion for economic losses it says were caused by its operations in the country and $2 billion in back taxes, court documents showed on Wednesday.
Authorities blame Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, for Nigeria's currency woes and detained two of its executives in 2024 after cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the local naira currency.
Binance, which is not registered in Nigeria, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously said it is working with Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service to resolve potential historic tax liabilities.
The inland revenue service alleges in documents seen by Reuters that Binance has a "significant economic presence" in Nigeria and is therefore liable for corporate income tax. It is seeking a court declaration that Binance pay income taxes for 2022 and 2023, plus a 10% annual penalty on unpaid amounts.
The FIRS is also requesting a 26.75% interest rate on the unpaid taxes, based on the Central Bank of Nigeria's lending rate."

I stumbled on the binance and Nigeria case again and I read an article where binance official alleged pointed a finger at a Nigerian personnel who requested for certain amount of bribe from the binance official to release him or discharge the case. I am surprised that new matter is surfacing now.

It is important to note that Binance has stopped trading Nigerian Naira since the fall out happened. Binance should pay those charges because they operated in Nigeria unregistered for many years.

[sokani]

~~

If they're suing Binance $2 billion dollars for illegal operations and accrued taxes, that's okay. However, demanding $79.5 billion dollars in economic loses is quite laughable. Binance is not responsible for the decline of the Nigerian naira, their bad policies did that.

Also, since the lawsuit is in Nigeria, how do they expect Binance to defend? If I remember correctly their last visit to Nigeria wasn't too pleasant. If their defense counsel cannot do it virtually, they better stay back because this might be "house arrest 2.0"

[Majestic-milf]

~~

If they're suing Binance $2 billion dollars for illegal operations and accrued taxes, that's okay. However, demanding $79.5 billion dollars in economic loses is quite laughable. Binance is not responsible for the decline of the Nigerian naira, their bad policies did that.

Also, since the lawsuit is in Nigeria, how do they expect Binance to defend? If I remember correctly their last visit to Nigeria wasn't too pleasant. If their defense counsel cannot do it virtually, they better stay back because this might be "house arrest 2.0"

Spoken like a true Nigerian, lol. Truly it's laughable that the government of Nigeria usually looks to foreign bodies to grow their economy but when it doesn't pan out the way they want, they start blaming these same people that they're responsible for the decline of the naira. I don't think something that has already been failing for years can be put on another's head as their responsibility.
The thing I'm saying is Nigeria easily shifts blame for their inadequacies and feel that would help their case, instead it would reduce their rep and financial institutions like this would find it hard to come and do business with them.
 Nothing has ever been achieved from shifting blames, so they better wake up!

[uchegod-21]

~~

If they're suing Binance $2 billion dollars for illegal operations and accrued taxes, that's okay. However, demanding $79.5 billion dollars in economic loses is quite laughable. Binance is not responsible for the decline of the Nigerian naira, their bad policies did that.

Also, since the lawsuit is in Nigeria, how do they expect Binance to defend? If I remember correctly their last visit to Nigeria wasn't too pleasant. If their defense counsel cannot do it virtually, they better stay back because this might be "house arrest 2.0"

Spoken like a true Nigerian, lol. Truly it's laughable that the government of Nigeria usually looks to foreign bodies to grow their economy but when it doesn't pan out the way they want, they start blaming these same people that they're responsible for the decline of the naira. I don't think something that has already been failing for years can be put on another's head as their responsibility.
The thing I'm saying is Nigeria easily shifts blame for their inadequacies and feel that would help their case, instead it would reduce their rep and financial institutions like this would find it hard to come and do business with them.
 Nothing has ever been achieved from shifting blames, so they better wake up!

Forget naysayers, Binance contributed much to the decline of naira. Binance P2P was much crazier than you can think. The competition between the P2P advertiser's worsen the situation. If Binance was still trading naira pair, I bet you that N3000 would have been equal to $1 by now. I support the Nigerian government in this one and besides, Binance wasn't even legally registered to operate in Nigeria. That's a let down on our government.

[Majestic-milf]

Forget naysayers, Binance contributed much to the decline of naira. Binance P2P was much crazier than you can think. The competition between the P2P advertiser's worsen the situation. If Binance was still trading naira pair, I bet you that N3000 would have been equal to $1 by now. I support the Nigerian government in this one and besides, Binance wasn't even legally registered to operate in Nigeria. That's a let down on our government.

Just want clearance on something; before allowing Binance to do their business in Nigeria, was a thing like this not supposed to be expected? What where the measures put in place to mitigate against a crisis like this? Ask them to pay for damages to the naira? Also, How can you allow a big exchange like that operate without fully registering them and later turning on them when you noticed things are getting out of hand? For me, the country is as much to blame as Binance.
 The other day, I read where Tigran Gambaryan alleged that some lawmakers asked for a $150m bribe while he was in their custody. Is this the kind of rep we want to present to foreign investors?

[sokani]

Forget naysayers, Binance contributed much to the decline of naira. Binance P2P was much crazier than you can think. The competition between the P2P advertiser's worsen the situation. If Binance was still trading naira pair, I bet you that N3000 would have been equal to $1 by now. I support the Nigerian government in this one and besides, Binance wasn't even legally registered to operate in Nigeria. That's a let down on our government.

Early last year, when the CBN governor was invited to the house of reps to explain the reason for the free fall of the naira, he blamed it on Nigerian appetite on foreign products, medical trips and foreign studies. Few months later, currency speculators was accused of being responsible and they came for Binance. They've been playing the blame game for long and I refused to buy the shit the government is selling. The main cause is what the CBN governor highlighted, that's what is killing the naira.

Even before Binance was created in 2017, the naira has been falling rapidly. How do you explain that?

[uchegod-21]

Forget naysayers, Binance contributed much to the decline of naira. Binance P2P was much crazier than you can think. The competition between the P2P advertiser's worsen the situation. If Binance was still trading naira pair, I bet you that N3000 would have been equal to $1 by now. I support the Nigerian government in this one and besides, Binance wasn't even legally registered to operate in Nigeria. That's a let down on our government.

Early last year, when the CBN governor was invited to the house of reps to explain the reason for the free fall of the naira, he blamed it on Nigerian appetite on foreign products, medical trips and foreign studies. Few months later, currency speculators was accused of being responsible and they came for Binance. They've been playing the blame game for long and I refused to buy the shit the government is selling. The main cause is what the CBN governor highlighted, that's what is killing the naira.

Even before Binance was created in 2017, the naira has been falling rapidly. How do you explain that?

Well, I stated it above that I don't trust the Nigerian government for a day. I don't trust them to mean well for Nigeria. It could also be that they don't even know the cost of depreciating naira. As you can see that naira has gained so much strength because the federal government is injecting billions of dollars to sustain it. I wonder for how long they'll keep back the naira with money. It does not really make sense to remove fuel subsidy and start dollar subsidy.

But on the binance side, I am sure they contributed to the immediate depreciation of naira. But if the government wants naira to be strong, they should turn the economy from a consumption economy to a production economy.

[Majestic-milf]

This storyline on the cryptospace as the cause of the decreasing value of the naria is only fud that they created. However, it is very headshaking that the Nigerians who are not experienced in the cryptospace will believe this. We should encourage all Nigerians to teach their countrymen and remove the ignorance of their people.

Which is not surprising because when you're out of ideas to run down your competition, you resort to cheap means and that includes blaming the down fall of your fiat on these digital currencies. The naira started being in use in 1973 and we started experiencing hitches and depreciation in 1986 so how will you blame something that has not even been thought of as the reason your country's fiat isn't progressing if it's not to discourage users and to also put FUD.