In a series of startling revelations, Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan has shared the harrowing details surrounding his arrest in Nigeria in February 2024.
Alongside his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, Gambaryan was detained by Nigerian authorities, accused of facilitating illegal financial activities such as money laundering and tax evasion.
The government also accused the company of playing a role in the devaluation of the naira by enabling cryptocurrency trades that allegedly impacted the national currency’s value.
The two executives were invited to Nigeria for discussions with officials but found themselves caught in a web of miscommunication and corruption.
While Anjarwalla managed to flee in March, Gambaryan remained behind bars and was charged in court. What followed, however, was a far darker tale of alleged abuse of power and manipulation.
Gambaryan, speaking candidly on his X account, accused Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, of seeking personal gain through the Binance case. Gambaryan claimed that Ribadu had attempted to secure payouts, hoping to leverage the situation to further his own career ambitions.
But as details of the case came to light, Gambaryan said that Ribadu found himself trapped—any potential settlement would now be perceived as a bribe, undermining his personal and professional integrity.
Ribadu’s strategy, according to Gambaryan, backfired dramatically. The NSA’s attempt to hire a U.S. law firm to negotiate Gambaryan’s release was aborted due to what Gambaryan described as the firm’s incompetence and greed.
Furthermore, Gambaryan accused Ribadu of exceeding his authority, humiliating Nigeria in front of U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. This misstep, he claimed, led to severe diplomatic consequences: the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on Nigeria’s delegation to the UN General Assembly, and President Joe Biden refused to meet with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu until Gambaryan’s situation was resolved.
The repercussions of Ribadu’s actions rippled far beyond Nigeria’s borders. Gambaryan accused him and his team of miscalculating their influence and underestimating the potential fallout from their handling of the case.
Instead of securing a swift victory, the Nigerian authorities created an international crisis, damaging both Ribadu’s reputation and the country’s standing on the world stage.
House of Reps. staged fake interview & Nigerian govt false allegations
Adding to the confusion, Gambaryan revealed that the Nigerian Department of State Services (DSS) played a disturbing role in their detention.
He recounted a January 2024 meeting where House of Representatives members, including Peter Akpanke, Philip Agbese, and Ginger Obinna Onwusibe, allegedly staged a fake interview with him and his colleague.
Despite the false appearance of an official session, the meeting ended with a demand for a $150 million bribe in cryptocurrency, which was to be paid directly to their personal wallets.
Gambaryan further criticized the Nigerian government’s claims that $26 billion had left the country via Binance. He argued that this figure was a misrepresentation of trading volume, not money leaving the country, and accused officials of deliberately distorting the facts to further their narrative.
He also addressed the misinformation surrounding Anjarwalla’s escape, claiming that the details of his departure were twisted to support a false narrative of wrongdoing.
The Binance executive also accused Nigerian officials of lying to the U.S. and British embassies, falsely claiming that the executives attended meetings voluntarily when, in reality, they were being detained against their will.
He also condemned Hamma Belloji, an official involved in the case, for attempting to fabricate evidence to extend their detention beyond the court’s orders.
Devaluation of the naira
As tensions escalated, Gambaryan spoke out about the Nigerian government’s attempts to pressure Binance into breaking international privacy laws by demanding user data on Nigerian traders.
He claimed that the government’s real motivation for targeting Binance was to blame the company for the devaluation of the naira.
According to Gambaryan, the government was fully aware that the real cause of the naira’s crash was President Tinubu’s monetary policy, which had removed government control over exchange rates.
Between January and February 2024, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the naira surged dramatically from below ₦900 to over ₦1,500, with many pointing to crypto P2P merchants and platforms like Binance as the cause.
Gambaryan insisted that the government used Binance as a convenient scapegoat, deflecting responsibility from their own policy failures.
In a final twist, Gambaryan accused the Nigerian government of further corruption, claiming that innocent EFCC detectives who had not been present when Anjarwalla “escaped” were detained as part of a cover-up.
He also revealed that during his detention, Nigerian authorities allegedly interfered with his medical treatment, pressuring Nizamiya Hospital to refuse him admission and withholding his medical records. The Turkish Ministry of Health later confirmed this interference.
As the saga unfolds, Gambaryan’s revelations paint a grim picture of corruption, mismanagement, and diplomatic fallout, leaving many to question the true motives behind Nigeria’s actions and the lasting consequences for the country’s international relationships.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has warned against Gambaryan’s allegations, calling them false and asking the general public to disregard them.
