How a Crypto Compliance Officer Ended Up in a Nigerian Jail

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Tigran Gambaryan, an American compliance official for the large cryptocurrency alternate Binance, flew to Nigeria in February for a deliberate two-day enterprise journey. He hasn’t returned.

Tigran Gambaryan is in a black T-shirt and speaking with robed lawyers in a courtroom.
Tigran Gambaryan, an government for the crypto alternate Binance, speaking to attorneys final week as he waits to face prosecution at a courtroom in Abuja, Nigeria.Credit score…Abraham Achirga/Reuters

When he flew to Nigeria for a enterprise journey in late February, Tigran Gambaryan, a high compliance officer on the cryptocurrency alternate Binance, packed a small suitcase with simply sufficient garments for 2 days.

A former U.S. legislation enforcement agent, Mr. Gambaryan knew the journey was dangerous. Only some weeks earlier, he and a gaggle of colleagues had rushed out of Nigeria, involved that the native authorities would possibly detain them, 5 individuals conversant in that journey stated. This time, he assured his spouse, he would “get in and get out.”

A month and a half later, Mr. Gambaryan is being held at Kuje jail within the Nigerian capital of Abuja, a posh that has housed Islamic State militants and Boko Haram fighters.

After assembly with authorities officers in Abuja on Feb. 26, Mr. Gambaryan, 39, and a Binance colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, had been abruptly escorted to a guesthouse managed by Nigerian safety officers, the place they had been held for almost a month with no formal prices filed in opposition to them.

Then, late final month, Mr. Anjarwalla, the corporate’s regional supervisor for Africa, escaped below mysterious circumstances. Preliminary studies instructed he had fled Nigeria after guards permitted him to go away the guesthouse for Ramadan prayers.

Inside days of the escape, the Nigerian authorities charged Mr. Gambaryan, Mr. Anjarwalla and Binance itself with tax evasion and cash laundering — successfully accusing the corporate and two midlevel workers of the identical crimes.


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