The Cost Of Gambaryan

Tigran Gambaryan, a former IRS Criminal Investigator and Head of Compliance at Binance, was imprisoned in Nigeria in February 2024 on accusations of money laundering and unlicensed money transmission.

In February 2024, Nigeria limited access to Binance in efforts to curb a currency slide, according to the Financial Times. The Nigerian Government has since stated that Gambaryan's arrest was part of "a wider probe into the criminal manipulation of the Nigerian currency through peer-to-peer platforms like Binance"

Nigeria's Central Bank has held a prohibition on commercial banks to engage in cryptocurrency transactions in efforts to promote the eNaira, a Central Bank Digital Currency that has seen little adoption since its launch in 2021. Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, on the other hand, has recognized digital assets as legitimate, and has announced the implementation of further regulations to ensure that all cryptocurrency exchanges obtained a license.

"I was invited by the Nigerian FIU to a meeting in January," writes Gambaryan on X, addressing the Nigerian Government's accusations that the Binance Executive was misrepresenting the facts of his arrest, claiming that he was denied medical treatment and access to legal counsel.

Since his release in October 2024 for "health reasons" just two days before his trial – Gambaryan suffered from a herniated disk and had contracted Malaria – Gambaryan has paraded himself as a victim of Nigerian human rights abuses, echoing statements by the US State Department that his imprisonment was "a clear violation of his rights and a grave injustice."

Nigeria has long faced international criticisms for its political prosecutions, police violence, an overcrowded prison population, as well as sexual violence against women and children in its detention facilities. Overall, the country's human rights records is less than stellar, featuring widespread corruption and the systematic prosecution of LGBTQ members as well as ethnic and religious minorities.

"It was just torture," Gambaryan said of his time in Nigerian prison. "The room crawled with cockroaches, and there was this fan that never stopped – I can still hear it in my head."

It now appears that Gambaryan's newly found freedom came at the cost of US assistance to the Nigerian Government in prosecuting "cryptocurrency and financial crimes".

On October 23 2024, the same day Gambaryan's release was announced, the Nigerian Government and the US State Department announced a "Bilateral Liaison Group on Illicit Finance and Cryptocurrencies" to "build [Nigeria's] capacity to pursue cybercrime investigations and prosecutions." As Business Insider Africa reported, the joint task force provides Nigeria with US "resources and expertise".

The Nigerian Government has since admitted that the release of Gambaryan "ended with tangible benefits for Nigeria" after allegedly refusing a $5 Million payment for his release in an X post addressing Gambaryan's accusations of mistreatment.

Nigeria has long remained on FATF's Grey List for lack of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing oversight, hindering its access to the global financial system due to increased controls.

Gambaryan did not respond to a request for comment asking whether he endorses the equipping of Nigeria's brutal regime with US financial investigation capabilities seeing how he himself had become a victim of the country's human rights abuses.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment asking whether it could confirm that the Liaison Group was part of the deal to free Gambaryan and whether it saw an issue in possibly perpetuating Nigeria's human rights abuses, but it did take down the announcement after our request.

Nigeria ranks among the highest cryptocurrency adoption rates in the world, fueled by high inflation and economic mismanagement, with the majority of trades happening on peer-to-peer platforms.

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