Binance asks Court to set aside Nigerian Government’s $81bn substituted suit service

Binance Holdings Limited, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside what it describes as the alleged “purported substituted service” of the Nigerian government’s $81 billion economic loss fine and unpaid income tax suit against it.

Chukwuka Ikwuazom SAN, counsel for Binance, made the request on Monday, in his motion, when he appeared before Justice Inyang Ekwo.

The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), had asked the court to order Binance Holdings Limited to pay $79,514,055,594.40 and N231 million for economic losses allegedly caused by its operations in Nigeria, as well as $2,001,000,000 in income tax for 2022 and 2023.

These monetary demands and alleged liabilities are 10% penalty for non-payment of income tax for 2022 and 2023; a 26.75% interest rate—being the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lending rate per annum—from January 1, 2023, and January 1, 2024, respectively.

Other associated charges in the FIRS case filed by Kanu Agabi SAN, Binance, along with two of its executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, are accused of contravening Nigerian laws by failing to register with the FIRS for tax compliance and causing economic losses to the country during the period under review.

The lawsuit alleges that Binance deliberately concealed its business activities despite having a “significant economic presence” in Nigeria.

This pending lawsuit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1444/2024, was first presented before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on February 11, 2025.

The legal team representing Binance and its executives was absent from those proceedings.

Agabi had informed the court that attempts to serve Binance directly had been unsuccessful, prompting him to file a motion for substituted service on February 7, 2025.

Substituted service is a legal procedure that allows court documents to be delivered through alternative means when direct service fails.

Justice Ekwo had granted the request and ordered that the substituted service be carried out within seven days.

At the resumed court proceedings on Monday, Ikwuazom announced his motion to set aside the substituted service.

He argued in his motion that substituted service of a process on a defendant outside jurisdiction can only be made where the government or a court of the foreign country the process was intended to be served certifies to the Court that the efforts made to serve the process have failed.

“Where an order for substituted service is issued by this Honourable Court, service of the order and the process or document to be served outside jurisdiction can only be made through the Federal Ministry of Justice,” he added, according to his motion.

In his motion, he urged the court to hold that the order for substituted service and the substituted service of the originating processes on the (Binance) Applicant are invalid and liable to be set aside.

He stressed that the email address Eleanor-huges@binance.com which the FIRS provided in its application for substituted service and to which the Court ordered that the Originating Processes be sent by way of substituted service on the Applicant does not belong to Eleanor Hughes or any other employee or officer of the Binance.

On his part, counsel to the FIRS, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, told the court that the cryptocurrency firm served them with the said motion this morning.

Justice Ekwo observed that the motion the Binance lawyer orally referenced was not in the court’s file.

Ikwuazom apologised to the court for that.
The judge subsequently adjourned the matter to April 30, directing the FIRS to file its response to the motion.