By Camillus Ebo
ABUJA (Reuters) – A Nigerian court on Tuesday postponed the money laundering trial of cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives until Oct. 11 after a court-ordered medical certificate against one of the defendants was not submitted as evidence.
Binance, its executive head of financial crimes compliance, Tigran Ghanbarian, a U.S. citizen, and its Africa regional manager, British-Kenyan Nadim Anjawala, were charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in unauthorized professional financial activities.
The exchange also faces four other charges of tax evasion, but all have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Ghanbarian appeared in court on Tuesday in a wheelchair. His case had been stalled since May because he was not healthy enough to stand trial. Binance had previously said Ghanbarian was suffering from malaria and pneumonia.
Justice Emeka Nwite expressed frustration over the ongoing dispute over Gambarian’s medical records. The court had previously ordered the hospital where Gambarian was treated to disclose the documents but the hospital director had not complied.
Judge Nwait issued an arrest warrant for the hospital’s medical director, requiring him to appear at the next hearing, and ordered that Gambarian be kept in hospital for 24 hours for “focus” and proper treatment.
Last month, two U.S. lawmakers urged the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to seek the release of Gambarian on humanitarian grounds, who has been detained since February due to ill health.
Binance did not immediately comment but denies the allegations.
Nigeria has blamed Binance for its currency crisis after the cryptocurrency website became the platform of choice for trading the Nigerian naira as the country suffers from a chronic dollar shortage and its currency fell to record lows.
(Reporting by Camillus Ebo, Elisha Bala Gbo and Chris Rees Editing by
