Binance Official Files Lawsuit Against Nigerian Authorities

Binance’s top official, Tigran Gambaryan, filed a lawsuit against Nigerian authorities for violating his privacy rights after his detention in Nigeria.

Tigran Gambaryan, the top financial crime compliance officer at Binance, filed a lawsuit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Security Advisor (NSA) of Nigeria. In the action, they are accused of violating his rights to privacy, and court intervention is requested.

Parallel to this, Nadeem Anjarwalla, the African regional manager of Binance who was detained alongside Gambaryan, has filed a comparable legal appeal. Anjarwalla may now be the subject of an international arrest warrant after he fled Nigeria the week before.

Renowned Nigerian lawyer TJ Krukrubo has argued that the confiscation of Gambaryan’s foreign travel certificate unreasonably restricts his freedom, constituting a violation of his constitutional rights. Krukrubo is pleading with the court to order the return of the passport and to get the release of Gambaryan. In addition, Gambaryan wants an official apology from the agencies involved as well as protections against detentions in the future connected to current investigations.

The American citizen, Gambaryan, said that on February 26, he traveled to Nigeria with a colleague at the NSA’s and EFCC’s invitation to discuss important matters pertaining to Binance. He stressed that he was not aware of any criminal charges prior to his detention and that his attendance at the conference was lawful.

“The only reason for his detention is the government’s insistence on getting information from Binance and putting requirements on the firm,” TJ Krukrubo said.

We have delayed the judicial review of this case until April 8 to await a decision.

The Nigerian government is examining Binance regarding local currency and tax issues

The Nigerian government has voiced apprehensions regarding the deleterious consequences of Binance’s peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform on the Nigerian naira (NGN), suggesting that the service may have unfavorable repercussions on the country’s currency. Since February, the government has also raised red flags regarding the bitcoin platform’s potential connection to money laundering.

Gambaryan and Anjarwalla went to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, to discuss the issue at the government’s request, and they later withdrew the NGN P2P trading options from their service. But following their meeting with Nigerian authorities, they spent more than three weeks in detention on government property.

Recently, the Nigerian government filed four allegations against Binance, alleging that the company failed to pay corporate income tax and value-added tax, failed to file tax returns, and enabled consumer tax fraud through its business.