Nigeria Court Drops Charges, Releases Detained Binance Exec After Eight Months
Nigerian officials are releasing Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, who has been improsoned for eight months.
Gambaryan served as the cryptocurrency exchange's regional manager for Africa. The US citizen was arrested with British Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla in Nigeria in February.
The pair visited the country to address allegations that the exchange's activity had crashed the country's national currency, the naira.
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) charged the exchange and its two executives with five counts bordering on money laundering as well as tax evasion charges. Gambarayan has pleaded not guilty.
Anjarwalla fled Nigeria and is hiding out in Kenya. Gambaryan, who serves as Binance's head of financial crime compliance, is being tried on money laundering charges along with the firm.
The Nigerian court has now dropped the money laundering charges against Gambaryan on humanitarian grounds due to his detiorating health.
Gambaryan reportedly had suffered from malaria, pneumonia, and tonsilitis, and also experiecned compliactions from a herniated disk, which left him wheelchair bound. Local authorities said Gambaryan required urgent medical care outside Nigeria.
"People are on the way to give the order" to the Kuje prison and then he should be released "immediately," Gambaryan's lawyer Mark Mordi told CoinDesk. Gambaryan was held in Kuje Prison since April.
Patrick Hillman, a former Binance executive who has been lobbying to free Gambaryan, said, "We’re all kind of waiting right now to hear that he’s on a plane, airborne, and headed home."
“Until we have verification of that, we’re all just clutching our shirt collars and waiting to make sure there are no other hiccups.”
The EFCC also confirmed that Gambaryan had no personal involvement in the company’s alleged crimes: “This is as optimistic as we’ve been for the last year,” said Hillman. "No one is ready to pop the champagne bottles yet. But it’s a good day.”
Nigeria's case against Binance nonetheless continues despite the executive's release.