Binance exec denied legal counsel as health declines

Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan was reportedly denied legal counsel and healthcare while in custody in Nigeria on criminal charges.

Gambaryan was taken to an Abuja court for his final hearing on July 16 after his health deteriorated while he was in Kuje prison. Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court signed an arrest warrant for the facility’s medical doctor.

However, according to his family, the punitive measures did little to help the arrested Binance executive. In a statement shared with crypto.news on August 12, Gambaryan was said to be bedridden due to several back problems and other health issues.

“I implore the Nigerian government to release him so he can return home and receive urgently needed medical treatment before it’s too late,” said Yuki Gambaryan, the partner of the detained cryptocurrency exchange employee.

Gambaryan will have been in jail for more than six months until his next hearing on October 11, amid an ongoing legal showdown between Nigerian authorities and Binance, the world’s largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange.

Nigeria Bans Crypto P2P on Binance and Other Exchanges

Gambaryan and Binance employee Nadeem Anjarwalla entered Nigeria in February. Local authorities quickly arrested the duo, who were invited to negotiate a settlement between CEX and Nigeria.

While Anjarwalla escaped custody and fled the country, Gambaryan remained and was charged with tax evasion and money laundering. Gambaryan denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim for human rights violations. Binance CEO Richard Teng petitioned Nigeria to release Gambaryan, stating that he had no decision-making authority.

Teng also claimed that unidentified officials had demanded significant hush money, a claim denied by a government spokesman.

US politicians have called on President Joe Biden to address the situation because Gambaryan is an American citizen and a former IRS agent. “We fear for his life,” the members of Congress wrote in June as the month-long fiasco continued.

The case against Gambaryan is part of a larger crackdown on crypto exchanges in the African country. Nigeria has seen an exodus of platforms, particularly in the peer-to-peer crypto market. Digital asset service providers such as Binance, KuCoin and OKX have shut down P2P trading in the country and, in some cases, limited their facilities.