When Tigran Gambaryan was first invited to meet with the Nigerian government in February to resolve a dispute with his employer, cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Nigerian officials arrested him against his will, confiscated his passport and told him he was a “guest” of the state. He has since been charged with financial crimes and jailed for months as a criminal suspect.
Within the US Congress, pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to treat him as what his supporters claim 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 in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs calling on the Nigerian government to release Gambaryan and on the U.S. government to acknowledge that Gambaryan is being held illegally as a hostage in an attempt to extort money from his employer, Binance. The resolution is the latest in a growing series of calls from Congress for the White House to increase pressure on Nigeria to release Gambaryan, a former federal agent who led many of the highest-profile cryptocurrency-related criminal cases of the past decade during his time as a criminal investigator for the IRS.
“The continued detention of Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria is a clear violation of his rights, and he is simply being used as a tool of extortion by the Nigerian government,” McCormick wrote in a statement. “We urge Nigeria to immediately release Tigran and provide him with the necessary medical care and a fair trial. The United States government must do everything in its power to secure the release of Tigran Gambaryan and all of our citizens who are being wrongfully detained abroad.”
McCormick's decision to call for Gambaryan's release follows an earlier open letter from 16 members of Congress urging the White House to refer Gambaryan's case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The letter noted that Gambaryan was suffering from malaria and pneumonia, and collapsed in court one day into his trial but was denied proper hospital care. “Gambaryan's health and well-being are at risk and we fear for his life,” the letter said. “Immediate action is 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, visited Gambaryan in jail last month and have 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 crime investigations and compliance, of money laundering and contributing to the devaluation of the country’s currency, the naira. But just days after those negotiations began, the two men were held against their will in a government-run “guesthouse.”
The situation escalated further when Anjarwalla, who lives in Kenya, escaped while visiting a mosque for Ramadan prayers. Gambaryan was subsequently criminally charged with tax evasion and money laundering – all indications are that those charges relate to Binance’s conduct, 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 track record as a federal agent. Before being hired by Binance, widely seen as part of the exchange’s efforts to clean up its shady 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 most significant cryptocurrency investigations in history. From 2014 to 2017 alone, for example, Gambaryan identified two corrupt federal agents who had enriched themselves with cryptocurrency from the Silk Road dark web drug market, helped track down half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin stolen from the early crypto exchange Mt. Gox, helped develop a secret crypto-tracing method that located the server hosting the massive AlphaBay dark web crime market, and helped take down the crypto-funded Welcome to Video child sex abuse video network.
Gambaryan's supporters point out that his work for the IRS led to the seizure of more than $4 billion, including some of the largest cash seizures in U.S. criminal history. “He's done so much good for this country during his career,” Gambaryan's wife, Yuki, told WIRED in March. “I believe it's his turn to get the same amount of support from his country.”
