Ebeh Christopher
The Nigeria Federal Government has unexpectedly dropped the charges against Mr Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance Executive who was arrested in February 2024 and was initially charged with tax evasion and money laundering by the Company he works for Binance.
Although the Tax evasion charge was dropped in June 2024, Gambaryan and another Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were charged with money laundering and illegal currency speculations.
According to reports from the Premium Times, A lawyer for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the prosecuting body, told the court that it was dropping all charges against the Binance executive.
The lawyer said;
“Announcing the withdrawal of the charges, Mr Gambaryan, a United States citizen, was merely an employee of Binance, whose activities he was being prosecuted for,”
Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were arrested in February 2024, shortly after arriving in Nigeria for a meeting with government officials.
That meeting was supposed to defuse the tensions between Nigeria and Binance after the country claimed that the crypto company was responsible for FX volatility after the decision to float the naira.
While the naira pared back some of its losses against the USD in April, it has since been on a slide.
Although his colleague Nadeem escaped detention in Abuja earlier in the year, Mr Gambaryan continued to be held despite pressure from the US government.
Sixteen American lawmakers accused Nigerian authorities of holding the American citizen hostage and on June 6 2024, Axios reported that a group of former prosecutors and federal agents in the US wrote to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, urging him to “step up” efforts to secure Gambaryan’s release.
Yet, Nigeria appeared reluctant to budge. Bail applications for Gambaryan were rejected twice, even as his health continued to deteriorate.
One lawmaker wrote on X after visiting Gambaryan in Kuje prison in June;
“We found him suffering from the conditions there, as he has malaria and double pneumonia, and he reports that he has lost significant weight. Even worse, he’s being denied access to adequate medical attention,”