Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive, remains in custody at Nigeria’s Kuje prison with a bail hearing scheduled for May 17. Gambaryan, detained since February 26, faces charges of money laundering and tax evasion, which his family has denounced as unfounded. The American citizen and former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) special agent is Binance’s head of financial crime compliance. Now he is experiencing extended prison time.
Tigran Gambaryan and a colleague, Binance’s regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a dual U.K.-Kenyan national, were arrested and detained on Feb. 26 after flying to Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja to meet with the Nigerian government at the government’s request.
The executive was initially in Nigeria to address allegations that Binance manipulated the Nigerian fiat currency, the naira. This visit coincided with Binance‘s decision to halt all transactions in naira, following which Nigerian authorities detained Gambaryan and fellow executive Anjarwalla. Anjarwalla managed to leave Nigeria using his Kenyan passport; he was later arrested in Kenya on April 22 and may face extradition back to Nigeria.
The delay in Gambaryan’s bail hearing, originally set for April 22 but postponed to May 17, extends his time in detention. He pleaded not guilty to the charges during a court appearance, with a trial set for May 2. This case has drawn international attention, prompting criticism from various quarters regarding the legitimacy of the Nigerian government’s charges. Binance has supported Gambaryan, stating that he holds no decision-making power within the company that could relate to the charges against him.
In a bid to secure his release, Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, initiated a petition urging the U.S. State Department, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian government, and U.S. President Joe Biden to intervene. As of late April, the petition has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures.
This case unfolds alongside another significant legal development involving Binance’s former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), in the U.S. CZ is set to be sentenced on April 30 after pleading guilty to charges related to failures in maintaining an adequate Anti-Money Laundering program at Binance. The prosecutors are seeking a 36-month prison sentence for CZ. It looks like Binance will not get out of the false cybercrime trail that former CEO CZ led them down. This is dangerous for the company’s executives, as shown in Nigeria.
