Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is suing Binance for $79.5 billion in economic losses as well as $2 billion plus interest in back taxes, the exchange said in its blog.
This is a leap from the initial $10 billion figure that Nigeria’s government sought after alleging that the exchange had enabled $26 billion of untraceable funds to leave the country as it faced a foreign exchange crisis and was looking to restrict capital outflows last year.
“FIRS argued that Binance has a significant economic presence in Nigeria but has not fulfilled its tax obligations,” Binance said in a blog post on Thursday. “The agency emphasized that manipulation on the Binance platform has contributed to the rapid depreciation of the naira, which is facing inflationary pressures.”
Nigeria has been pursuing litigation against Binance since early last year. The country detained two of its executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla in February. The country charged the executives plus the exchange with money laundering and tax evasion charges but later released Gambaryan after Anjarwalla, fleed. Binance is still facing money laundering charges from the country.
CoinDesk reached out to Binance and Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service for a comment.