Nigeria hit back on bribery allegations against Binance Holdings and called on the firm to concentrate on the charges against the company.

The Wednesday statement came in the wake of a blog by Binance CEO Richard Teng, which accused a high-ranking Nigerian official of pressuring representatives of cryptos to sign a secret agreement. In return, claims against the exchange would be settled, which, as it turns out, the Nigerian government supposedly has.

"Teng made false allegations of bribery against unidentified Nigerian government officials who he claimed demanded $150m in cryptocurrency payments to resolve the ongoing criminal investigation against the company," said the Ministry of Information spokesman, Rabiu Ibrahim.

He added that the assertion was made by the Binance CEO, stating, "lacked any iota of substance." He also termed it as a "diversionary tactic and an attempted act of blackmail."

"It will not clear its name in Nigeria by recourse to very fictional claims and smearing the media," he added. "The only way to resolve its issues will be by submitting itself to unobstructed investigation and judicial due process."

Binance did not return our request for comment by press time.

Binance Employees Allegedly Threatened, Offered Secret Deal

Teng tweeted, "The Nigeria House Committee on Financial Crimes (HCFC) is threatening to arrest Binance staff and also bar them from the country's exit."

After the HCFC meeting, reports alleged that some people had secretly approached Binance employees, including whatever was transacted for in the meeting, for a compromise that included a financial settlement to keep it on the low. The New York Times reported that this $150 million "settlement" was reportedly coming from the Nigerian government.

Detained Execs, Access Denied

The crisis erupted on February 26 when Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the top two officials of the company, traveled to Abuja to address the Binance-Nigerian government face-off. In March, however, the two got detained in Nigeria for two weeks without any justification before being slapped with money laundering and tax evasion charges.

Anjarwalla escaped shortly thereafter but was recaptured in Kenya, almost 3,000 miles away, in late April. The government had earlier ordered the country's telecoms to block access to Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges on concerns over the devaluation of the Nigerian currency and money laundering claims by such platforms. Reports point out that it has angered the government of Nigeria due to the capital flowing out of the country, being lost in crypto exchange, hence worsening the African nation's financial state.