Binance Executives Detained in Nigerian Capital Despite Company’s Departure from the Country

Two senior executives of Binance, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held at a government facility since February 26.

In spite of Binance’s recent announcement of its withdrawal from Nigeria, there are reports that two of its top executives are still under detention in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.

As per Wired’s report on March 12, Tigran Gambaryan, a former US federal agent specializing in cryptocurrency, along with Nadeem Anjarwalla, another executive at Binance, have been detained in Abuja without their passports for the past two weeks.

Both Gambaryan, who heads Binance’s criminal investigations team, and Anjarwalla, who serves as the regional manager for Africa based in Kenya, have been held since February 26, 2024, at a government property.

According to the families of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla, Nigerian authorities have not disclosed whether the two executives are facing any criminal charges.

Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, expressed uncertainty about her husband’s situation, stating, “There’s no definite answer for anything: how he’s doing, what’s going to happen to him, when he’s coming back.”

A spokesperson for Binance, speaking to Cointelegraph, confirmed on March 12 that both Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were still detained in Nigeria. The spokesperson mentioned that they are working closely with Nigerian authorities to ensure the safe return of the executives to their families.

Emphasizing the integrity and professionalism of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla, the Binance representative expressed confidence in a swift resolution to the matter.

The first reports regarding the arrests of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla emerged at the end of February, although they were not initially identified. They arrived in Abuja on February 25 in response to an invitation from the Nigerian government to discuss issues related to Binance’s operations in the country.

Following a meeting with Nigerian officials, where they intended to address the government’s directive to block access to Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were taken to a guesthouse run by Nigeria’s National Security Agency. Their passports were seized, and they have been allegedly held against their will since then.

According to Wired, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla have been visited by officials from the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office, albeit with Nigerian government guards present, hindering private conversations.

The arrests occurred just days before Binance officially declared its complete exit from Nigeria on March 5. As part of the exit plan, Binance suspended naira withdrawals on March 8 and eliminated all trading pairs involving the naira on March 7. Additionally, peer-to-peer trading with the naira had been disabled in late February.