A Binance Executive, Tigran Gambaryan has asked the Federal High Court Abuja to compel the Office of the National Security Adviser(NSA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) to apologize to him over his detention in the country.
Gambaryan disclosed this in his Fundamental Rights suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/356/2024, while alleging that the federal government is using his continued detention “as leverage to continue making demands on Binance.”
In his grounds of application, the applicant’s lawyer T.J. Krukrubo SAN explained to the court that his client is an American citizen who visited Nigeria on 26 February 2024, along with Nadeem Anjarwalla, solely for the purpose of honouring invitation by Mr. Saad Abubakar of the NSA and Mr. Olalekan Ogunjobi of the EFCC for a meeting with government officials as representatives of Binance.
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He added that after honoring the invitation, his client, who is not a board member of Binance, was detained afterwards and has not been released.
The suit seen by Nairametrics reads,
- “The Applicant and Nadeem Anjarwalla dutifully attended the meeting.
- “However, after the meeting on 26th February 2024, the Applicant and Nadeem Anjarwalla were detained by the Respondents and have remained in detention since then.
- “The Applicant did not commit any offence during the meeting with the 1st Respondent neither has he been informed in writing of any offence he personally committed in Nigeria at any other time.
- “The only reason for his detention is because the government is requesting information from Binance and making demands on the company. The Applicant is not a member of the Board of Directors of Binance.
- “The only reason for the continued detention of the Applicant by the Respondents is merely for the purpose of being used as leverage to continue making demands on Binance. The Respondents, being agents of the Federal Government of Nigeria, have a channel of communication to request for information and make demands on Binance without the necessity of detaining the Applicant, who only dutifully attended a meeting with the Respondents.”
- The applicant contended that Binance “ is committed to honouring any reasonable requests for data by law enforcement agencies globally, and specifically Nigeria, whereby Binance has supported Nigerian law enforcement agencies since 2020, having responded to more than 600 requests for information by Nigerian authorities, resulting in substantial seizures/recoveries.”
The applicant sought the following orders,
- “A Declaration that the detention of the Applicant by the Respondents and seizure of his international travel passport, contravenes Section 35 (1) and (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended) and amounts to a violation of the Applicant’s fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.
- “An order of this Honourable Court directing the Respondents to release the Applicant from their Custody and return his international travel passport with immediate effect.
- “AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Respondents, either by themselves or through their officers and agents from further detaining the Applicant in relation to any investigation into, or demands from Binance.
- “An order for the Respondents to Issue a public apology to the applicant.”
What transpired in court?
At the resumption of proceedings, Krukrubo told Justice Inyang Ekwo that his application has been served to the respondents and they were still within time to respond.
He asked the judge to adjourn so that the NSA and EFCC can respond to his application.
The judge agreed with him and shifted the case to April 8.
- “My counsel to you that if at time you receive the applications of respondents. You should respond.
- “Case April 8, 2024,” Justice Ekwo ruled.
Backstory
Recently, the federal government had accused the cryptocurrency exchange with influencing foreign exchange (FX) rates, leading to stricter oversight of crypto trading platforms.
On February 28, Nigerian authorities detained two senior Binance executives: Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan who serves as the regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old American who is the head of financial crime compliance at Binance.
Following the federal government’s ban on cryptocurrency channels as part of a campaign against currency speculation, the Binance executives visited Nigeria for a meeting.
The Naira has experienced a significant devaluation of its currency, with the naira losing 70% of its value against the dollar since the foreign exchange reforms were implemented last year, a situation worsened by a shortage of dollars locally.
The NSA later confirmed that Nadeem had fled the country.
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