Bribery Allegation By Binance, Plot To Derail Criminal Investigation — Reps Panel

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Crimes has described the allegations against it by Binance as a plot clearly designed to shift attention from the alleged heinous financial and economic crimes against the Nigerian State levelled against the firm.

The Committee’s Chairman, Hon. Ginger Obinna Onwusibe who stated this at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, also asserted that Binance’s campaign against the panel were bogus, obnoxious, false, fabricated allegations and pure blackmail.

Onwusibe said the claims were intended to derail the investigations by the committee, delegitimise its constitutional, statutory and legitimate enquiry into the activities of Binance in Nigeria.

The lawmaker lamented as most unfortunate, that some Nigerians have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by Binance and sucked into the uproar prevalent in the Nigerian news circle in the past few days.

According to him; “On 7th May 2024, Nigerians and indeed the entire world were shocked by allegations of solicitation of bribes made against the Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes by Mr. Richard Teng, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance, in a blog post on Binance.com which was subsequently uploaded to the X (formerly twitter) account of Mr. Teng (@RichardTeng). Binance holds itself out as a blockchain ecosystem and digital asset exchange.

“These allegations were brought to the attention of majority of Nigerians principally through malicious defamatory online and physical publications by Premium Times, a Nigerian News Organisation from where it went viral.

“Understandably, the public were outraged and the House Committee on Financial Crimes (hereinafter, “the Committee”) has faced opprobrium and anger of members of the public,” Onwusibe said.