By
Bena Ilyas
May 17th, 2024
The Nigerian government has been holding Gambaryan for more than 70 days to compel Binance executives to pay hefty fines for deteriorating local currency.
After more than two months of impasse between the Nigerian government and Binance Holdings Ltd, CEO Richard Teng has broken the silence and urged the West African nation to unconditionally release Tigran Gambaryan. In a blog post on Binance today, Teng highlighted the plight faced by Gambaryan in Nigerian detention. Furthermore, Gambaryan has spent more than 70 days in Nigerian detention without access to his family.
“To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng noted.
As Coinspeaker previously reported, Gambaryan was accompanied by Nadeem Anjarwalla, head of Binance in Africa, who later fled Nigeria during the Ramadan celebrations.
What Is at Stake between Binance and Nigeria
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with high adoption of web3 and digital assets, has seen its local fiat currency lose value against global markets significantly in the recent past. According to the latest forex data as of this writing, the Nigerian Naira traded around 1,383 for a single US dollar. The Nigerian government has blamed the high cryptocurrency adoption rate for the deteriorating economy.
The Nigerian SEC has resulted in a ban on several cryptocurrency exchanges that are not regulated in the country. As Coinspeaker explained, the Nigeria SEC intends to ban persons-to-persons (P2P) crypto transactions in Nigeria.
Binance has, however, blamed the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for failing to provide proper communication channels.
According to Teng, Binance officials were approached by individual Nigerians requesting them to make settlement payments, which they declined. Binance has indicated that any settlement with the Nigerian government must be official and made in writing.
My friend and colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, has been unlawfully detained by the Nigerian government for more than 70 days. We're tirelessly working to #BringTigranHome.
For the first time publicly, I'm sharing the full context of this situation here. ⤵️https://t.co/Rg3DEYJZgW
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) May 7, 2024
Additionally, Binance has demanded that the Nigerian authorities make relevant detailed allegations and encompass all relevant agencies. Previous reports show that the Nigerian government is seeking as much as $10 billion from Binance in the settlement, more than twice what was made in the United States.
Notably, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was recently sentenced to a four-month imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Additionally, Binance agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines to the United States government.
Remedies to the Impasse
With the matter having escalated in the past few months, Teng noted that Binance has engaged with the United Kingdom’s High Commission and the US Embassy. Binance has also since delisted all Naira trading pairs including P2P trading.
According to Teng, things moved from bad to worse after Nadeem left the unlawful detention. Nonetheless, Teng has indicated that there is hope for the unconditional release of Gambaryan from Nigeria.