Binance CEO Richard Teng is demanding the release of a top executive imprisoned in Nigeria for alleged money laundering crimes.
In a new Binance blog post, Teng calls on Nigerian authorities to release Tigran Gambaryan, head of the crypto exchange’s Financial Crime Compliance team, who has been held for more than 70 days.
Gambaryan was arrested in February after flying to the country to engage in regulatory talks.
Upon Gambaryan’s release, Teng promises that Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, will work with Nigerian authorities to resolve alleged potential outstanding tax liabilities.
Says Teng,
“Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past. We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities.
It remains unclear to me as to why this is not a solution to which the Nigerian government officials are willing to agree. The Nigerian government has extraordinary power to determine the future of Binance and the broader crypto industry within its borders.
At the end of the day, Binance wants to have a future where we work alongside the Nigerian government to be part of building a strong economy for the Nigerian people. But this crisis must come to a resolution quickly, and Tigran must be allowed to go home if we’re going to move forward.”
In March, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) leveled various charges against Binance, Gambaryan and his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, the regional manager for the crypto exchange’s Africa operations.
The charges included “operating without the required license, unlawfully negotiating foreign exchange rates, tax evasion and concealing the origin of illegal proceeds and revenue of $35.4 million.”
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