Tigran Gambaryan, an employee of Binance who is being detained in Nigeria, is not a member of the management team of the company, according to Binance.
The massive cryptocurrency exchange made it clear that Gambaryan, an American, is merely a law enforcement official and does not have decision-making authority.
This was revealed by the organization in a statement that was received by a source on Wednesday.
On suspicion of participating in money laundering operations, Binance Holdings Limited employees Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were detained in Nigeria in February.
The Federal High Court in Abuja last Thursday charged the company and its two workers with $35,400,000 in money laundering, among other offenses.
Anjarwalla escaped and left the nation, while Gambaryan is still being held.
Binance has not yet responded to questions concerning Anjarwalla’s whereabouts.
Part of Binance’s statement reads, “Tigran is a strict law enforcement professional and is not part of Binance management. While he has left the official service of the U.S. government, he has remained fully committed to the role of law enforcement officer ever since, operating as a global advocate for good governance and transparent regulatory financial practices.
“Binance respectfully requests that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making power in the company, is not held responsible while current discussions are ongoing between Binance and Nigerian government officials.”
Gambaryan was employed in 2021, according to the exchange, to assist Binance in resolving earlier compliance problems.
As the leader of the company’s Financial Crime Compliance team, Binance said that Gambaryan has been a steadfast supporter of the development of procedures and compliance-related skills that establish new benchmarks for the sector.
“In 2022 and 2023, Tigran’s Financial Crime Compliance team assisted global law enforcement in freezing and seizing more than $2.2b worth of assets, including more than $285m in cooperation with United States agencies like the FBI, DOJ, DEA, and others,” it said.
Binance claims that Gambaryan and his group trained Nigerian law enforcement officials on the function of exchanges in the ecosystem for digital assets on several occasions.
“This included a three-hour online workshop for 70 Nigerian EFCC officials in mid-2023 and, late last year, two full-day sessions for EFCC officials in Abuja and Lagos, with more than 30 investigators attending each of them,” the company noted.
On Thursday, Binance Holdings Limited, Gambaryan, and Anjarwalla will be charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission with $35,400,000 in money laundering.
After completely taking over the case from the Office of the National Security Adviser, the EFCC has made Gambaryan its own prisoner and secured a court warrant to apprehend and extradite Anjarwalla, who managed to get out of hand.
The Federal Government contacted INTERPOL on Monday of last week and issued an arrest warrant for Anjarwalla.
According to information acquired, the EFCC is currently working in conjunction with the Kenyan government, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland government, and the International Criminal Police Organization to execute Anjarwalla’s arrest and extradition.
On February 28, 2024, The Financial Times said that two firm executives had been taken into custody after entering the nation via plane due to a website ban.
The EFCC requested that Binance submit information on its top 100 Nigerian users as well as the complete transaction history for the previous six months, according to a March 12, 2024, FT story.
Nigeria and Binance are now negotiating this request.
