When Tigran Gambaryan was first invited in February to meet with the Nigerian government to resolve a dispute with his employer, cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Nigerian officials detained him against his will, took away his passport and told him he was a “guest” of the state. He has since been charged with financial crimes and jailed for months on suspicion of a crime.
Pressure is now mounting within the U.S. Congress for the Biden administration to treat him as what his supporters maintain he has been all along: a hostage illegally held by an unaccountable foreign country.
On Wednesday, U.S. Congressman Rich McCormick, who represents Gambaryan’s district in his home state of Georgia, introduced a resolution to the House Foreign Affairs Committee urging the Nigerian government to release Gambaryan and calling on the U.S. government to acknowledge that Gambaryan is being unlawfully held hostage in an effort to extort his employer, Binance. That resolution represents the latest in a series of growing calls from Congress for the White House to step up its pressure on Nigeria to release Gambaryan, a former federal agent who led many of the most high-profile cryptocurrency-related criminal cases of the past decade during his time as an IRS criminal investigator.
“The continued detention of Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria is a clear violation of his rights and is being used simply as a means of extortion by the Nigerian government,” McCormick wrote in a statement. “We urge Nigeria to immediately release Tigran and provide him with necessary medical care and due process. The United States government must do everything in its power to secure the release of Tigran Gambaryan and all of our citizens unjustly detained abroad.”
McCormick’s resolution to push for Gambaryan’s release follows an earlier one Open letter from 16 members of Congress The letter asked the White House to transfer Gambaryan’s case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The letter noted that Gambaryan had suffered from malaria and pneumonia, that he fainted in court during one day of his trial, but that he had been denied adequate care at a hospital. “Gambaryan’s health and well-being are in jeopardy and we fear for his life,” the letter read. “Immediate steps are essential to ensure his safety and preserve his life. We must act quickly before it is too late.” Two House members, French Hill and Chrissy Houlahan, He visited Gambaryan in prison last month and also called for his release..
Gambaryan and another Binance employee, Nadeem Anjarwalla, flew to Abuja in late February at the invitation of the Nigerian government after officials in the country accused Binance, where Gambaryan works as head of financial crimes investigations and compliance, of money laundering and contributing to the devaluation of the country’s national currency, the naira. But just days after that negotiation, the two men were detained in a government-run “guest house” against their will.
The situation was further aggravated when Anjarwalla, who lives in Kenya, escaped during a visit to a mosque for Ramadan prayers. Gambaryan was criminally charged with tax evasion and money laundering (all indications suggest that those charges are related to Binance’s behavior, not Gambaryan personally) and was transferred to Kuje Prison, where he has been held ever since.
The charges against Gambaryan are particularly ironic given his history as a federal agent. Before being hired by Binance, which was widely seen as part of the platform’s efforts to clean up lax compliance of its operations and years of alleged money laundering documented in a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. government last year, Gambaryan spent a decade leading many of the largest crypto crime investigations in history. From 2014 to 2017 alone, for example, Gambaryan identified Two corrupt federal agents who had gotten rich with Silk Road cryptocurrencies darknet drug marketplace, helped track half a billion dollars in bitcoins stolen from the first cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, helped develop a secret cryptocurrency tracking method that located the server hosting the massive darknet crime marketplace AlphaBay, and helped bring about the takedown of the cryptocurrency-funded child sexual abuse video ring Welcome to Video.
Gambaryan’s supporters point out that his work for the IRS led to the seizure of more than $4 billion, including several of the largest monetary seizures in American criminal justice history. “He has done a lot of good for this country throughout his career,” Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki, told WIRED in March. “I think it’s his turn to receive the same amount of support from his country.”
