Richard Teng, Chief Executive Officer of Binance, says the company is working very closely with the Federal Government of Nigeria for the release of Tigran Gambaryan, the company’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance.
The Federal High Court Abuja had remanded Gambarya at the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the determination of his bail application.
Binance and its executives are faced with two separate suits by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)- the former bordering on tax evasion and the latter linked to money laundering and foreign exchange contravention.
Speaking during the Token2049 Crypto Conference in Dubai on Thursday, the CEO of the cryptocurrency trading platform said that the company is collaborating closely with Nigerian authorities to resolve the issue.
- “What I can say is we are working very closely with the Nigerian authorities to try to resolve the matter,” CEO Richard Teng said.
In addition, Vishal Sacheendran, Binance’s Head of Regional Markets, told Reuters that this was an isolated incident and had never occurred at the company before.
- “This was a one-off. It’s never happened to us before,” Sacheendran said.
Backstory
On February 28, Nairametrics reported that Nigerian officials 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 in charge of financial crime compliance at Binance.
- According to a statement from the office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Anjarwalla subsequently escaped from lawful custody.
- Meanwhile, Gambaryan, the other detained official, has taken a legal action against the Federal Government, the ONSA and the EFCC.
- He seeks an apology for his detention, as stated in his fundamental rights suit, FHC/ABJ/CS/356/2024.
- Gambaryan claims his ongoing detention is being used by the government to exert pressure on Binance.
