Nigeria Court rejects Binance Executive Bail Request amid $35 Million Money Laundering Trial
The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday rejected the bail request of detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan.
According to a local media report, Daily Post Nigeria, a spokesperson for the executive’s family said the bail application was denied by the Nigerian court on the grounds that there is a possibility that Gambaryan will manage to jump bail.
This was further confirmed by Justice Emeka Nwite in a ruling, stating that based on the affidavit evidence before him, the detained Binance executive would jump bail if the bail application was granted. Justice Nwite declared, "I am of the view that the applicant will jump bail if granted after carefully reviewing the affidavit evidence before me."
It was stated that, given that Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Binance Regional Manager for Africa, was the co-defendant and had previously escaped from custody, Justice Nwite agreed with the prosecuting lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, that it would be unwise to grant Gambaryan bail.
However, after Gambaryan entered a not guilty plea to the money laundering charges brought against him by the EFCC, the judge ordered an accelerated hearing for the trial and remanded him in Kuje Correctional Center. The court adjourned the case to May 22 for arraignment.
Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance's Africa regional manager, and Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen in charge of the cryptocurrency exchange's financial crime compliance, were taken into custody on February 26 after arriving in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, for an official meeting.
They were the subject of criminal charges of money laundering and tax evasion on February 28, and on March 22, Anjarwalla managed to escape custody. Anjarwalla, who holds both British and Kenyan citizenship, fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport, according to a statement from the office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser. He was reported to have fled from a guest house in the capital city of the country after security guards granted him permission to enter a nearby mosque for prayers.
While Nigeria's tax agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, is in charge of the tax violation charge, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is leading the prosecution in the $35 million money laundering case. The money laundering trial being conducted by the EFCC began today, and the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called the first prosecution witness.
🇳🇬 U.S. CITIZEN DETAINED IN NIGERIA, $150M RANSOM DEMANDED
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 10, 2024
American and former federal agent Tigran Gambaryan, now a Binance executive, has been detained in Nigeria for over 70 days.
Nigerian authorities, after inviting him for a business meeting, are allegedly demanding over… pic.twitter.com/8h76H6a3ng
In a widely shared video recorded while in custody, Tigran Gambaryan, the senior executive of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, appealed for assistance from the US government. Gambaryan stated in the video footage going viral on the internet that he has been in custody for a month and also mentioned that he just learned his partner, Nadeem Anjarwalla, had escaped from custody.
Whaleinsider.news reported earlier that Binance CEO Richard Teng recently released a blog post on the ongoing detention of colleague Tigran Gambaryan, publicly claiming for the first time that he is innocent and calling on the Nigerian government to release him.
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