By Adedapo Adesanya
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance, Mr Richard Teng, has called on the Nigerian government to release Mr Tigran Gambaryan, the head of the crypto exchange’s Financial Crime Compliance team, who is currently imprisoned in the country.
He accused Nigeria of setting a dangerous precedent after the company’s executives were invited to the African country and then detained as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrency.
“As you may be aware, one of our beloved colleagues, Tigran Gambaryan, continues to be held by the government in Nigeria for more than 70 days,” Mr Teng wrote in a blog post on the Binance website, which has been blocked by some telcos.
“I also feel that it’s time to speak out about this issue on behalf of the global business community. To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” he added.
The exchange’s Regional Manager for Africa, Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla, was also detained in February, but has since escaped custody and is believed to be in Kenya.
Mr Teng, who replaced the founder Mr Changpeng Zhao, said Binance executives first held meetings with Nigerian authorities in the country in January.
However, at a follow-up meeting on February 26, the Nigerian government said the issues involving Binance were of national security and demanded that the exchange delist the Naira currency from its platform and provide “granular-level” details on all Nigerian users, he said.
As a result, Mr Gambaryan and Mr Anjarwalla were subsequently detained, until the latter fled during the Ramadan month.
“To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng said, in his strongest comments yet since the case started in February.
Mr Gambaryan was being held in Nigeria for more than two months “for spurious reasons,” Mr Teng said.
Following the issue, Binance announced in early March it was stopping all transactions and trading in Naira.
“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” said Mr Teng.
He said Gambaryan should be allowed to go home while Binance and Nigerian authorities resolve any issues, noting that it was cooperating.
“We will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities,” he said.