The court's decision came about two months after the Binance official's colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla reportedly escaped from a pre-trial custody in Abuja in March.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday rejected a bail request by Tigran Gambaryan, a top official of Binance Holdings Limited.
The trial judge, Emeka Nwite, said Mr Gambaryan poses a flight risk if granted bail in the money laundering charges filed against him and his cryptocurrency firm by the Nigerian government.
The court's decision came about two months after Mr Gambaryan's colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla reportedly escaped from a pre-trial custody in Abuja in March.
In his ruling, Mr Nwite said the nature of the alleged offence and its severity must be weighed when determining Mr Gambaryan's bail application.
The defendant will therefore remain in detention throughout his trial, except if Friday's ruling is overturned on appeal.
"I am of the view that the applicant will jump bail if bail is granted to him," the judge said before ordering an accelerated hearing of the case.
Following the order, the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), opened its case, calling its first witness, a staff member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the witness box to testify.
Background
EFCC on 28 March, charged Mr Gambaryan alongside Binance and another of the company's top executives, Nadeem Anjarwalla.
But only Mr Gambaryan, who pleaded not guilty to the five counts alleged in the case, was available for arraignment before the trial judge on Monday.
EFCC wrote in the charges that Mr Gambaryan's colleague and co-defendant, Mr Anjarwalla, who escaped from lawful custody in Abuja in March, was on the run.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Anjarwalla, 38, escaped on Friday, 22 March, from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast.
The Briton, who also has Kenyan citizenship, was believed to have flown out of Abuja using a Middle East airliner.
But, there have been reports of Mr Anjarwalla's re-arrest in Kenya by the International Police Organisation (Interpol).
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Other case
In a separate case instituted by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the prosecution accused Binance and its executives of tax frauds. FIRS filed the case on 22 March
Count one alleged that while involved in carrying and offering services to subscribers on their platform, known as Binance, they failed to register with the FIRS for the purpose of paying all relevant taxes administered by the service.
Count two alleged that while they were offering taxable services to subscribers on their trading platform known as Binance, they failed to issue invoices to those subscribers for the purposes of determining and payment of their Value Added Tax (VAT).
Count three accused them of offering services to subscribers on their trading platform in the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and the remittance and transfer of those assets, and that having offered those services, it was obliged to deduct VAT and did fail to deduct necessary VAT arising from their operations.
In count four, the prosecution accused them of offering services to subscribers on their trading platform and aiding and abetting those subscribers to unlawfully refuse to pay taxes or neglect to pay those taxes.
The alleged offences, according to the prosecution, are punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993 (as Amended), Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) and under provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended) respectively.
