Nigeria’s Federal Government has unexpectedly dropped charges against Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive arrested in February 2024 and initially charged with tax evasion and money laundering.
While the tax evasion charge was dropped in June, Gambaryan and another Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were charged with money laundering and illegal currency speculation.
Premium Times reports that on Wednesday morning, a lawyer for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the prosecuting body, told the court it was dropping all charges.
“Announcing the withdrawal of the charges, the lawyer said Mr Gambaryan, a United States citizen, was merely an employee of Binance, whose activities he was being prosecuted for,” a Premium Times report said.
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 tensions between Nigeria and Binance after the country claimed 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.
While Nadeem escaped detention in Abuja earlier in the year, 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, 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. “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,” one lawmaker wrote on X after visiting Gambaryan in Kuje prison in June.
