By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA (Reuters) – A Nigerian court has adjourned a tax evasion case against Binance to April 30 to allow the local tax authority to respond to a request by the cryptocurrency exchange to annul an order for court documents to be served on it by email, a lawyer for Binance said on Monday.
The lawyer, Chukwuka Ikwuazom, asked the court to set aside the order because the tax authority did not obtain a leave from the court to serve court documents on Binance outside Nigeria. Binance does not have a physical office in Nigeria.
“On the whole the order for the substituted service as granted by the court on February 11, 2025 on Binance who is … registered under the laws of Cayman Islands and resident in Cayman Islands is improper and should be set aside,” Ikwuazom said.
Nigeria has filed a lawsuit seeking to compel 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, according to court documents.
Authorities blame Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, for Nigeria’s currency instability 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.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Mark Potter)
