- Following a recent court ruling, reprieve continues to elude Tigran Gambaryan in his Nigerian nightmare.
- The judge’s decision has significant implications for Gambaryan’s health.
- The case continues to drag on at the expense of the Binance executive.
When you spend the bulk of your life hunting down and bringing some of the world’s worst criminals to book, it is hard to imagine that you might one day have to spend time behind bars yourself. This, however, has been the lot of Binance Chief Financial Crime Officer Tigran Gambaryan, a celebrated former IRS agent and a pioneer in the field of crypto investigation.
For the better part of the past seven months, Gambaryan has been incarcerated in one of Nigeria’s most notorious prisons for the alleged crimes of his employers, with efforts to secure bail remaining unsuccessful.
Gambaryan’s Ordeal Continues
After several ruling delays, Tigran Gambaryan has again been denied bail in Nigeria. Justice Emeka Nwite made the decision in a Friday, October 11, hearing in the money laundering case brought by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against Binance and Gambaryan, as observed by my colleague DailyCoin reporter Grace Abidemi.
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Gambaryan had sought bail as his health continues to rapidly deteriorate in Nigerian detention, with lawyers arguing that the Binance man, who suffers from a deteriorating herniated disk condition and recurring respiratory tract infections, requires specialist intervention.
Issuing the ruling on the bail application on Friday, however, Justice Nwite argued that the Binance executive’s failing health did not provide sufficient grounds for bail.
“Bad health is not sufficient grounds to grant bail,” the judge asserted, adding, “Therefore this application can not be granted and is hereby refused.”
Instead of bail, the judge ordered Nigerian Correctional Service officials to take the Binance executive to the hospital for three days whenever he wished.
This ruling comes despite the several instances in which the Nigerian Correctional Service has disregarded court orders with impunity in the case and repeated reports of its negligence of Gambaryan’s health—a point the Binance executive’s lawyer Aluko and Oyebode’s Mark Mordi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), brought up with the judge in protest of the decision.
Gambaryan Not in Safe Hands
Protesting Justice Nwite’s ruling, Mordi highlighted that just three weeks ago, Gambaryan had come down with a respiratory infection and was experiencing chest pains, which led the U.S. consul to request an X-ray. According to the lawyer, however, prison officials have yet to provide this X-ray.
Mordi stressed that the Nigerian Correctional Service had thus far failed to provide care for Gambaryan despite multiple court orders, suggesting that there was no guarantee that this time would be any different.
However, Justice Nwite waved off These concerns, maintaining that the Nigerian Correctional Service would comply with the order.
Meanwhile, amid these concerns, the case continues to drag on.
Case Adjourned Again
Following the bail ruling, the court briefly held normal proceedings in the money laundering case, which saw the continuation of the cross-examination of Olubukola Akinwunmi, head of payments policy and regulation at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), called by the prosecution to speak on the nature of Binance’s operations in Nigeria and claims that these operations interfered with naira price discovery.
In sworn prosecution-led testimony on July 5, CBN’s Akinwunmi told the court that Binance had solicited Nigerian customers through its website and physical events, offering them unauthorized banking and currency exchange services despite not being a licensed business there.
In previous attempts at cross-examination, a noticeably uncooperative Akinwunmi had largely evaded questions from the defense that sought to establish:
- Requiring Binance to have a CBN license represented a double standard if local trading houses were not required to do so.
- The naira derivative traded on Binance was not the same as the fiat issued by the CBN, suggesting that it did not offer the apex bank the right to regulate the exchange.
Following this line of inquiry on Friday, October 11, Binance lawyer Babatunde Fagbohunlu attempted to discuss the CBN’s eNaira policies with Akinwunmi. However, it did not take long for the judge to call for an adjournment of proceedings until November 22 and November 25, much to the chagrin of the defense.
On the Flipside
- Before now, the judge had denied Gambaryan bail in May 2024, arguing that he was a flight risk even though the Binance executive’s travel documents have been in the custody of the country’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu since February 2024. The Binance executive still has a pending appeal against this decision.
- Gambaryan also faced a separate tax evasion case brought by Nigeria’s tax authority, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). However, his name has been dropped from the case since Binance appointed an agent in the country to receive processes on its behalf.
Why This Matters
Tigran Gambaryan has spent over seven months in Nigerian detention. The saga continues to take a toll on the Binance executive and his family while setting a worrying precedent for U.S. crypto workers abroad.
Read this to catch up on all the details in the Tigran Gambaryan detention saga:
Binance’s Gambaryan Still Detained After 6 Months: Where Are the Answers?
Uniswap is launching its own Ethereum Layer 2 chain. Find out more:
Uniswaps Unveils Layer 2 to Tackle DeFi Limitations: All You Need To Know
This is a developing story that will be updated shortly with more details.