Binance CEO Richard Teng has called for the release of Tigran Gambaryan, the exchange’s jailed CEO in Nigeria.
In an extensive May 7 blog postTeng said Gambaryan’s detention was unjust and set a dangerous precedent. He said:
“Inviting a company’s mid-level employees to joint policy meetings and then detaining them has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide.”
Gambaryan is a US citizen who heads the cryptocurrency exchange’s financial crime compliance department. He and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional manager for Africa, were arrested on February 26 upon their arrival in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Anjarwalla escaped custody on March 22.
Teng pointed out that Gambaryan “did not go to Nigeria as a ‘decision maker’ nor as a ‘negotiator’. He merely acted as a functional expert on financial crime and capacity building in policy discussions.”
He accused Nigeria of detaining the Binance employee as part of efforts to exert control over the exchange.
According to Teng:
“The message from the Nigerian government is clear: we must arrest an innocent mid-level employee and a former US federal agent and place him in a dangerous prison to gain control of Binance.”
He concluded that Nigeria “let Tigran will go home to his family, and then Binance will go through the same process that we have voluntarily done with the Nigerian law enforcement community over 600 times in the past.”
Binance makes bribery allegations against Nigeria
In his blog post, Teng revealed that the exchange received requests from “unknown individuals,” posing as representatives of Nigeria’s House Committee on Financial Crimes (HCFC), demanding that a “significant payment in crypto be paid in secret.”
Teng refrained from providing further details on the amount requested.
The New York Times reported that an individual associated with the Nigerian government approached Gambaryan and requested a bribe amounting to approximately $150 million in crypto.
However, Teng said the exchange rejected the “payment request” because it “did not consider it a legitimate settlement offer.”