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Binance Founder Faces Three Years Imprisonment in US Over Money Laundering

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Binance founder

By Adedapo Adesanya

The embattled founder of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, Mr Changpeng Zhao, is facing three years in prison over money laundering charges.

The tech tycoon, popularly known as CZ will be sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the charges last year with US prosecutors seeking the sentence for the 47-year-old.

Mr Zhao stepped down as chief executive of Binance in November after admitting to breaking US anti-money laundering laws.

The US prosecutors requested a 36-month sentence in a filing in Seattle federal court last week, arguing that sentencing the Binance founder to twice the maximum 18 months recommended under federal guidelines would reflect the gravity of his offences, and send a message.

The court filing also said Binance operated on a “wild west” model under Mr Zhao’s leadership, failing to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions due to poor internal controls. The suspect trades included transactions with designated terrorist groups Hamas, al-Qaida and ISIS.

“Zhao’s willful violation of US law was no accident or oversight. He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets,” said the prosecutors.

Mr Zhao agreed to step down as Binance CEO after he and the company admitted breaching the Bank Secrecy Act. The exchange also agreed to pay a financial penalty of $4.3 billion while Mr Zhao was fined $50 million.

In Nigeria, Binance is also under heavy scrutiny with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accusing Binance’s executives – Mr Tigran Gambaryan and Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla, of laundering $35.4 million.

In February, Mr Gambarayan, who is in charge of financial crime compliance at Binance, and Mr Anjarwalla, who is Binance’s Africa Regional Manager, were detained after arriving in Nigeria for meetings to discuss the platform’s operations in the country.

Binance was later that week ordered to pay a fine of $10 billion after the Nigerian government accused it of currency speculation and fixing exchange rates, leading to the free-fall of the Naira.

Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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African Union Launches Credit Rating Agency to Rival Fitch, Others

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African Union

By Adedapo Adesanya

The African Union has announced the launch of its rating agency, the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) to provide accurate ratings for countries on the continent.

According to Kenya’s President, Mr William Ruto, while unveiling the new agency at an AU event held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday, AfCRA will address biases by global rating firms.

Global firms like Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor (S&P) are some of the ratings agency which provide insights into African countries to aid investors and stakeholders.

There have been criticisms that these ratings lead to higher borrowing costs for African countries and make it harder for them to access international financial markets.

“Global credit rating agencies have not only dealt us a bad hand, they have also deliberately failed Africa,” Mr Ruto stated during the launch.

“They rely on flawed models, outdated assumptions, and systemic bias, painting an unfair picture of our economies and leading to distorted ratings, exaggerated risks, and unjustifiably high borrowing costs.”

According to President Ruto, improving Africa’s rating by one notch could unlock $15.5 billion in additional funding for the continent, which could help replace a significant portion of official development assistance or be invested in Africa’s infrastructure needs.

Despite Africa’s abundant natural wealth, only two African nations are currently ranked as investment grade.

“It is time for Africa to use the right scale, one that reflects its true weight,” Mr Ruto added.

The African Union has previously criticized global rating agencies’ characterization of African economies. In January, the AU pointed out that Moody’s Ratings’ fluctuating assessment of Kenya’s outlook was flawed.

“As the continent continues its march towards economic integration and resilience, the establishment of the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) represents a pivotal step in asserting Africa’s position on global financial governance.”

The agency aims to provide fair, transparent, and development-focused credit ratings that reflect the realities and potential of African economies.

The idea comes more than a year since the AU officially announced its plans to move forward with the project since September 2023.

The push for an African credit rating agency became viable in 2022 when Senegal’s former president Macky Sall, then the chairman of the AU, called for a new system to “end the injustices” faced by African countries.

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Dubai BRICS Forum Will Help Develop Small and Medium Businesses

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Konstantin Klimenko-Bogdanov BRICS Investment Forum

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

In this insightful conversation, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Dubai BRICS Investment Forum, academician Konstantin Klimenko-Bogdanov, highlights the primary importance of the forthcoming corporate business forum within the context of the geopolitical situation and offers a distinctive roadmap for economic collaboration of the BRICS countries. Here are the interview excerpts:

What does the upcoming BRICS Investment Forum in Dubai mean, especially in the context of geopolitical rivalry and competitive struggle?

In theory, competitive struggle should contribute to the development of the economy. After all, competition does not allow for the establishment of a monopoly, the dominance of only an exclusive minority of market participants. But on the condition that this is fair competition. But we are witnessing uncivilized methods of dividing spheres of influence in the market, cynical exploitation of natural resources in Africa and Asia by Western transnational corporations, and monopolization of entire industries in developing countries.

For example, the telecommunications sector, and the banking sector in Africa practically do not belong to Africans. Sometimes the name of a bank can have the word “Africa”. The real owners of banking capital are in Paris, London, and New York.

The income from the national wealth of African and Asian countries is distributed amazingly cynically. For example, coffee is purchased in Africa for a price of 1 dollar per kilogram, and sold in Europe for 4 dollars!

Unfair competition is supplemented by geopolitical rivalry in the form of escalating international tensions, declaring trade wars, and sanctions, and creating artificial military conflicts. Again, the goal of conflicts and military operations is only one – to seize resources. For example, in Iraq, and Syria, the Americans brazenly pump oil, without losing money on its purchase. And the US President does not hesitate to take away the Panama Canal or seize the island of Greenland.

Therefore, the goal of holding the Dubai BRICS Investment Forum is to find ways to facilitate civilized international economic cooperation in the conditions of trade wars, military conflicts, and sanctions. It is necessary to make an honest analysis and develop a roadmap for the joint economic development of the BRICS countries and friendly states.

Can you point to the prospects for its preservation (the forum) as an extraordinary annual platform for stimulating bilateral and multilateral transactions, and investments and, possibly, establishing a flow of corporate transactions between BRICS+ members and partner countries?

The Dubai BRICS Investment Forum is definitely not a one-off event. It is the basis for creating a global BRICS business community, which will operate on an ongoing basis. It will consist of the BRICS International Club, the BRICS House International Network, the Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises, the Tourism Alliance, the Women’s Business Association and a number of other organizations. A digital platform, BRICS INFO, will be created.

The task of these structures is to establish a flow of trade, concentrate investment resources, and create a flow of corporate transactions.

Special attention will be paid to small and medium businesses. We intend to connect about 10,000 small and medium businesses into one ecosystem. The total turnover of this ecosystem in 2025 alone will amount to about US$700 billion.

We will also have social investment projects. The BRICS Student Card project is being created for students. With this card, students will receive various forms of social support in the form of discounts on air tickets, train tickets, purchases of goods in supermarkets, and so on. The most talented students will receive incentive scholarships.

It is planned to create a network of BRICS campuses through joint investments of BRICS businessmen. The campuses will house a university, college, and lyceum. The network will operate in 10 countries.

What priority investment projects will the forum promote?

Our priority is the Small Energy project. Half of the African continent and part of Asia have no electricity at all! This is unacceptable for the 21st century! We plan to create hundreds of small power plants on solar panels, wind turbines, and diesel generators through joint investments.

We have very interesting joint investment projects planned in the real estate sector. New housing complexes under the BRICS House brand will be built in many countries. In essence, these will be “cities of the future.” The main priority in the concept of these cities is “human ecology.” For example, these cities will not have any gasoline-powered vehicles at all. Only electric vehicles. But there will also be restrictions on cellular repeaters that emit harmful electromagnetic radiation. The goal of the project is to create areas that are as favourable as possible for human life. Many investors are already ready to invest in these projects.

By the way, why are you holding this important BRICS event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates? Are there any distinctive advantages that it offers to potential business participants, including women and young entrepreneurs?

The choice of Dubai as a permanent venue for our forum is based on expert opinion. We are confident that the most comfortable infrastructure and conditions for holding large-scale summits and creating business development centres have been created here. The UAE has a balanced tax system, thoughtful economic policy, and a tolerant atmosphere. And Dubai is a city of dreams, a bright future. Therefore, our forum will be held here annually and the residences of the BRICS House, BRICS Club, and the Alliance of Small and Medium Business will operate here permanently.

Based on the above reasoning, can we perhaps see the difference between the World Economic Forum in Davos and the BRICS Investment Forum in Dubai in the current situation of ongoing global transformations and development?

The difference in key approaches. At the Davos Forum, the agenda is set by Western transnational corporations. They initiate discussions of globalization plans. Our forum is intended for small and medium-sized businesses in Eurasia and Africa. We intend to discuss not globalization, but how to develop national economies and establish active cooperation between them.

At the Davos Forum, trends are created by politicians. Many participants go to this forum to listen to heads of state and high-ranking government officials. There will also be officials and parliamentarians at the Dubai Investment Forum. But they are not the main participants here. They will listen more than they speak. It will be entrepreneurs and taxpayers who support officials with their taxes who will speak more often. Because this is a platform for business, not a tribune for politicians.

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Swedfund Offers $15m Loan for Food Processing in Africa

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By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A working capital loan of up to $15 million has been given to Robust International by Swedfund to support food processing and smallholder farmers in Africa.

The credit facility is to ensure food security and an increased local processing capacity on the continent.

It was stated that the loan would enable Robust to source local commodities to new processing facilities and thereby spur job creation, economic growth and trade.

The company will buy sesame seeds and cashew nuts directly from cooperatives, aggregators and farmers locally to support operations at its new processing facilities in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Burkina Faso.

The $15 million funding is part of a joint initiative together with the Dutch, British and French development finance institutions and the Dutch fund manager, ILX.

Robust is a multi-national trader of agricultural commodities, specialising in sesame seeds and cashew nuts, sourcing primarily from East and West Africa.

Swedfund now joins FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), British International Investment (BII), Proparco and ILX, the Dutch fund manager, to further support the development of enhanced local processing. The total working capital facility amounts to up to $105 million.

Africa exports many agricultural products for processing and refining. Robust now takes the step to do this locally instead, leading to job creation, development of the local supply chains, increased capacity and lower emissions.

The organisation has a strong focus on human rights and decent conditions for workers and farmers in their supply chain.

“Through the working capital facility, we offer funding where local banks are not able to,” the Head of Sustainable Enterprises and Food Systems at Swedfund, Sofia Gedeon, said.

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