Nigeria Sues Binance for $81.5 Billion in Economic Losses, Back Taxes: Report

CORRECT (Feb. 20, 14:35 UTC): Corrects attribution throughout. An earlier version said the information came from Binance.

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, Reuters reported Wednesday referencing court documents.

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.

The FIRS alleges that Binance has a "significant economic presence" in Nigeria so should be liable to pay corporate income tax, Reuters reported, citing documents it had seen. Binance has yet to respond to a CoinDesk request for a comment.

Nigeria has been pursuing litigation against the crypto exchange since early last year. The country detained two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, in February. The country charged the executives and the exchange with money laundering and tax evasion, but later released Gambaryan after Anjarwalla, fleed. Binance is still facing money laundering charges from the country.

Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service did not respond to a request for a comment.