Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered Binance Holdings Limited to give the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) all the data of Nigerians trading on its platform.
The order was given after the EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, requested it in court. It’s meant to help the EFCC investigate alleged money laundering and terrorism financing on Binance, a platform for trading cryptocurrencies.
The EFCC’s request was based on certain laws that empower it to investigate financial crimes. In an affidavit, EFCC operative Hamma Bello stated that they received intelligence about illegal activities on Binance and began investigating.
Bello explained that getting the data from Binance was urgent and crucial for their investigation. He said the platform’s actions had caused the Nigerian currency, the Naira, to lose its value against other currencies.
According to Bello, the data showed that Nigerians traded $21.6 billion on Binance in 2023 alone.
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that offers various services for trading cryptocurrencies and supporting blockchain developers.
