Sixteen U.S. Republican congressmen have accused Chief Bola Tinubu’s government of abducting and holding American citizen Tigran Gambaryan to extort his employer, Binance, and have urged President Joe Biden to intervene.
According to Bloomberg, the lawmakers sent a letter to Mr. Biden on June 4, requesting his assistance in securing the release of Mr. Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, from Nigerian prison.
The congressmen described the charges against Mr. Gambaryan as baseless and accused the Nigerian government of using coercion tactics to extort Binance. They stated that after initial professional meetings, the negotiations became increasingly hostile, leading to Mr. Gambaryan’s detention.
The lawmakers stated in the letter, “The charges against Mr Gambaryan are baseless and constitute a coercion tactic by the Nigerian government to extort his employer, Binance,”
“Following these charges, Mr Gambaryan qualifies as a U.S. citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government.”
“After two rounds of meetings, which were described as starting professional and then becoming increasingly hostile, the government of Nigeria took Mr Gambaryan hostage,” the American legislators added.
The U.S. lawmakers’ letter equally reechoed Binance’s claim that Nigerian officials contacted them asking for a bribe.
The detention of Mr. Gambaryan and the escape of his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from Nigerian custody in March have heightened tensions between the cryptocurrency platform and Nigerian authorities.
Mr. Gambaryan and Mr. Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager, had traveled to Nigeria in February for a meeting with National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu amidst Nigeria’s crackdown on cryptocurrency platforms, which the government claims are aiding currency speculators damaging the Nigerian naira. While Mr. Anjarwalla managed to flee the country, Mr. Gambaryan remains in custody facing trial over money laundering charges.
Since the crackdown began, Binance has disabled its P2P function and exited the Nigerian market. Other cryptocurrency platforms, OKX and KuCoin, have also halted their P2P functions for Nigerian users and delisted the naira.
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