- Binance CEO has come to the rescue of the exchange’s exec detained in Nigeria.
- The CEO wrote a heartfelt plea to Nigerian authorities.
- The CEO’s plea follows a similar call by Binance in March.
Binance CEO Richard Teng has expressed grave concerns about the continued detention of the exchange’s compliance officer, Tigran Gambaryan, in Nigeria.
Nigerian authorities reportedly invited Gambaryan and Binance’s Regional Manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, for collaborative policy meetings in February before unceremoniously detaining them. While Anjarwalla allegedly escaped, Gambaryan is still detained in the country, facing tax evasion charges.
Gambaryan “Must Be Released”
Richard Teng addressed the issue publicly for the first time in a blog post dated May 7, noting that Nigerian authorities had set a dangerous precedent by detaining Gambaryan.
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“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 stated.
Claiming that Gambaryan was “innocent and must be released,” Teng said that the compliance chief didn’t visit Nigeria as a “decision-maker” or a “negotiator,” implying that he was not to be held accountable for discussions involving Binance’s operations in the country.
“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,” Teng added.
Teng’s plea to the Nigerian government follows a similar call by Binance on March 3. The exchange said Gambaryan had “no decision-making power in the company” and urged the government to exclude him from the accusations of tampering with the naira exchange rate and evading tax.
Read about Gambaryan’s recent arraignment in Nigeria’s federal court:
Binance Exec Evades Nigerian Tax Case After Fiery Hearing
Stay updated on Binance’s recent move to swap SAFU assets:
Binance Swaps SAFU Assets to USDC to Bolster “Stability at $1B”
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