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Nigeria has unexpectedly dropped money laundering charges against a Binance executive who has been held in the West African country since February. This ended a saga that threatened to strain diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the US.
Charges against Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen who heads the cryptocurrency exchange’s financial crimes compliance unit, were dropped during a hearing in the Nigerian capital Abuja, two days before he appeared before a federal Supreme Court judge would appear.
A lawyer representing Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, announced on Wednesday that charges against Gambaryan would be dropped on grounds of ill health. The presiding judge had repeatedly denied Gambaryan bail, considering him a flight risk. Gambaryan’s family said he was in poor health in prison and did not receive adequate medical care, had contracted malaria and suffered from a hernia.
But people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the decision to drop the charges was the result of months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy from Washington, including efforts by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The U.S. outreach also included talks with Nigeria’s president, national security adviser and other top officials, the people said.
US lawmakers had also publicly called for Gambaryan’s release, saying his detention was “a clear violation of his rights and a grave injustice,” while Binance’s CEO had said he was being “wrongfully detained” and receiving “proper medical was denied treatment and legal assistance. ”.
Nigerian government lawyer Ekele Iheanacho appeared to confirm the efforts, saying at the courthouse on Wednesday that there was “a diplomatic settlement” that secured Gambaryan’s release.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EFCC and a spokesperson for Gambaryan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gambaryan, a former US Internal Revenue Service agent, was arrested in February along with his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan national and regional manager for Africa at Binance, when they arrived in Nigeria for a meeting requested by officials.
They and Binance were accused of laundering more than $35 million and operating without a license. Anjarwalla later escaped from custody and has not commented on the charges. The case against Binance continues and the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is also separately facing tax evasion charges. Tax evasion charges against the two employees were dropped in June.
Their arrest came as Nigeria began a crackdown on crypto exchanges blaming it for a decline in the value of the naira currency.
The men were held in a compound in the capital for weeks and their phones and passports were confiscated. But after Anjarwalla escaped detention in March under mysterious circumstances, Gambaryan was transferred to Kuje prison, which holds prisoners including terrorists from the Islamist fundamentalist group Boko Haram.