Binance CEO calls for release of colleague detained in Nigeria

Binance CEO Richard Teng has spoken out on the ongoing detention of colleague ​​Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria, publicly claiming for the first time the crypto exchange’s compliance officer is “innocent and must be released.”

Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen overseeing financial crime compliance at the crypto exchange, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager, were detained following their arrival in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, on Feb. 26, amid accusations of Binance making illegal-transaction profits locally. Criminal charges were filed against them on Feb. 28. Anjarwalla later escaped from custody on March 22.

“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 wrote in a blog post early Tuesday. 

Gambaryan was formerly a Special Agent for the U.S. IRS and has “devoted his professional life to fighting financial crimes,” Teng said. He was hired by Binance in 2021 to help the exchange build stronger compliance controls, subsequently assisting global law enforcement in freezing and seizing more than $2.2 billion worth of assets, including more than $285 million in cooperation with U.S. agencies like the FBI, DOJ and DEA, according to Teng.

“Tigran did not go to Nigeria as a ‘decision-maker,’ nor a ‘negotiator.’ He was merely acting as a functional expert in financial crime and capacity building in policy discussions,” the Binance CEO added.

“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,” Teng posted on X.

‘Let Tigran go home to his family’

Teng claimed that during a bail hearing for Gambaryan on April 25, a prosecutor for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said to the court, “The 1st defendant [Binance] is operating virtually. The only thing we have to hold on to is this defendant [Tigran].”

“The message from the Nigerian government is clear: we must detain an innocent, mid-level employee and a former U.S. federal agent, and place him in a dangerous prison in order to control Binance,” Teng stated.

Since taking over from Changpeng Zhao as Binance CEO in November, Teng said he made a key commitment to work with global regulators and enforcement agencies, restructuring the organization and bringing in new leadership with compliance experience like Gambaryan to “dramatically” evolve the business.

In November, Zhao pleaded guilty in the U.S. for failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program and agreed to pay a $50 million fine. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in one of the largest corporate settlements in history.

Teng said that Binance will continue to do everything to support Gambaryan, requesting that he be allowed to go home to his family, after which the firm would work with Nigeria’s law enforcement to remove “bad actors” from its platform and with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service on resolving potential historic tax liabilities.

“This crisis must come to a resolution quickly, and Tigran must be allowed to go home if we’re going to move forward,” he added.

How we got here

The situation involving Binance in Nigeria began two years ago when Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission issued digital asset regulations requiring permits for crypto exchanges in May 2022. Binance attempted to comply but faced unclear requirements and non-responsiveness from the SEC, according to Teng. In June 2023, the SEC accused Binance of operating illegally, leading to Binance suspending the solicitation of Nigerian investors.

Around the time Gambaryan and Anjarwalla traveled to Nigeria for meetings, Nigeria’s currency, the naira, was suffering a steep decline, with many local Binance customers using its peer-to-peer trading platform to protect themselves, Teng said. 

Binance then began hearing concerns that the P2P naira prices from merchant advertisements were influencing the country’s foreign exchange rate. The exchange worked on restrictions, including removing abnormally priced ads, and made it clear that malicious users would be removed from the platform. Despite assurances the meetings would be friendly, Teng added, the pair were still detained.

“To remove any doubt about suggestions that we had played a role in the country’s currency crisis and as a good faith gesture, I made the difficult decision earlier this month to turn off our P2P product on the Binance platform for Nigeria and end the trading of all naira pairs on the spot exchange product on the Binance platform,” Teng said today. “Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”