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Nigeria unexpectedly dropped money laundering charges against a Binance executive who had been held in the west African country since February, bringing an end to a saga that threatened to strain diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the US.
The charges against Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen who heads the cryptocurrency exchange’s financial crime compliance unit, were dropped at a court hearing in Nigeria’s capital Abuja two days before he was scheduled to appear on trial before a federal high court judge.
A lawyer representing Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, announced on Wednesday that the charges against Gambaryan would be dropped on grounds of ill health. The presiding judge in the case had repeatedly denied Gambaryan bail, deeming him a flight risk. Gambaryan’s family said he was in poor health in prison and was not receiving adequate medical attention, having contracted malaria, and suffering from a herniated disk.
But people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times the decision to withdraw the charges was a culmination of months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy from Washington, including efforts by US secretary of state Antony Blinken. US outreach also involved talks with Nigeria’s president, national security adviser and other top government officials, the people said.
US lawmakers had also publicly called for Gambaryan’s release, saying his detention was “a clear violation of his rights and a grave injustice”, while the chief executive of Binance had said he was “unjustly detained” and “denied proper medical treatment and legal counsel”.
Nigeria’s government lawyer Ekele Iheanacho appeared to confirm the efforts, saying at the courthouse on Wednesday that there was “a diplomatic arrangement” that secured Gambaryan’s release.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EFCC and a spokesperson for Gambaryan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gambaryan, a former agent for the US Internal Revenue Service, was arrested alongside his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a dual UK-Kenya citizen and regional manager for Africa at Binance, in February when they arrived in Nigeria for a meeting requested by officials.
They and Binance were accused of laundering more than $35mn and operating without a licence. Anjarwalla later escaped from custody and has not commented on the charges. The case against Binance continues and the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange also separately faces charges of tax evasion. Tax evasion charges against the two employees were dropped in June.
Their arrest came as Nigeria embarked on a crackdown on crypto exchanges that it blamed for a fall in the value of the naira currency.
The men were held in a compound in the capital for weeks and had their phones and passports seized. But after Anjarwalla escaped detention in mysterious circumstances in March, Gambaryan was transferred to Kuje prison which houses prisoners including terrorists from the Islamist fundamentalist group Boko Haram.
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