YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) – Nigerian authorities have LITERALLY kidnapped two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, and have been placing them under arrest for the past two weeks. The Nigerian government invited them to Abuja on Feb. 25 to discuss a dispute with Binance. This disagreement involves about $26 billion in funds that no one can trace.
Binance Leaders Held in Abuja: A Standoff Over Crypto
Tigran Gambaryan was a US federal agent who led big cases against crypto thieves, money launderers, dark-web drug sellers, and people using crypto for child exploitation. Now, he works for Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange. But, he’s facing trouble himself. Nigerian officials have detained him and another Binance executive for the last two weeks.
Since Feb. 26, Gambaryan, now leading Binance’s crime investigation team, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional manager for Africa based in Kenya, have had their passports taken away, and Nigerian authorities have kept them in confinement at a government property in Abuja, the capital.
Their families say nobody has told them about any criminal charges against them. It seems Nigeria’s move to ban cryptocurrency exchanges is because the country’s currency is losing its value. The Financial Times first reported this but didn’t name the two executives.
“Yuki Gambaryan, his wife, says, ‘We don’t have clear answers. We don’t know how he’s doing, what will happen to him, or when he’ll come back. Not knowing this is very hard for me.'”
Nigeria Holds Binance Execs Without Cause
Gambaryan from the US and Anjarwalla, with UK and Kenya citizenship, arrived in Abuja on Feb. 25 on an invitation from the Nigerian government. The next day, they wanted to discuss how Nigeria blocked Binance and other crypto exchanges. They said these exchanges hurt the value of Nigeria’s naira and helped move money illegally.
But after their first meeting, officials took Gambaryan and Anjarwalla from their hotels to a guesthouse run by Nigeria’s National Security Agency. They took their passports and kept them there for more than two weeks, never letting them go.
Family members say a US State Department official visited Gambaryan, and a UK foreign office representative visited Anjarwalla. However, Nigerian security was always present during these visits, so they couldn’t talk privately.
Binance spokesperson didn’t specify the accusations or what Nigeria wants for their release. They said:
“We can’t talk about the situation’s details right now. But we are working with Nigerian officials to get Nadeem and Tigran safely back to their families. They are very professional and honest, and we will support them as much as we can. We hope this will be resolved quickly.”
Last week, Anjarwalla got sick, and they thought it might be malaria, so he and Gambaryan went to a hospital. His wife mentioned this, but his exact illness wasn’t clear. Now he’s feeling better, and they’re back at the place where Nigerian officials are holding them.
Ex-Agent Gambaryan Held: Family Seeks Help
For Gambaryan, it’s odd to be stuck in a problem between Binance and a government. Binance brought him on board in 2021 to clean up illegal money problems and work better with the law. Last November, Binance decided to settle with American prosecutors for $4.3 billion over money laundering charges and agreed to strict checks by US regulators.
Before Gambaryan worked at Binance, he was famous in law enforcement for his groundbreaking work on cryptocurrency cases with the US Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division. From 2014 to 2017, he led several big cases. He caught two corrupt federal agents stealing cryptocurrency from the Silk Road dark-web drug site and selling secrets to its owner. He also helped find 650,000 BTC stolen from the Mt. Gox exchange, created a new way to trace crypto to find the AlphaBay crime site’s server, and helped shut down a network that shared child abuse materials using cryptocurrency.
Will Frentzen, a former prosecutor who worked with Gambaryan, called him a top agent known for his strong integrity. “He worked on the biggest crypto cases at that time,” Frentzen said. “Gambaryan was creative in how he investigated, often being the first to figure things out, and he didn’t care about getting credit for it. He had a huge impact on these investigations.”
Yuki Gambaryan says her husband’s work history shows he deserves help from the US to get free. “He has done a lot for this country,” she explains. “It’s time for the country to help him back.” Yuki doesn’t know what the State Department or the US embassy in Abuja has done to help him yet.
Anjarwalla, who works for Binance and studied at Oxford and Stanford, joined the company a year ago. His wife, Elahe, says he’s not in charge of making big decisions at Binance. She shares that he’s in detention during Ramadan, their son just got his first tooth, and will turn one year old next week.
“Nadeem is a great husband and dad and my best friend,” she says. “I want him to come home to us.”
Gambaryan has a TV and a balcony where he’s held, but he told Yuki that being detained feels like the same day keeps repeating, like in “Groundhog Day.” “He’s trying to be hopeful, but it’s tough. He’s losing patience and feeling hopeless,” Yuki mentions.
For Yuki, the worry and not knowing have made these two weeks extremely hard. She hasn’t told their young kids yet. “Sometimes, I’m scared I won’t see him again,” she says. “I’m just asking for them to let him go.”
Nigeria’s Financial Crisis: A Pretext for Holding Crypto Execs
The cause of the situation?
Nigeria’s poor management has caused hyperinflation, with rates over 30% last month, and the currency value dropped more than 200% against the USD in 2023. Many of Nigeria’s over 200 million people are now using USD stablecoins to save their money. Politicians blame cryptocurrencies for these problems and have arrested Tigran and Nadeem, two top officials from the biggest global cryptocurrency exchange.
This situation is not right. Tigran and Nadeem should be free to go home to their families.
