Nigerian officials reportedly detained a former U.S. federal agent and an African regional manager working for Binance.
Nigeria detained Binance’s top cryptocurrency investigator and regional manager shortly after arriving in the country at the invitation of Nigerian officials, Wired reported, citing the detainees’ families.
Tigran Gambaryan, who previously worked as a U.S. federal agent and joined Binance’s criminal investigation team, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s African regional manager based in Kenya, were invited by local authorities. After arriving in Nigeria, he was detained without any criminal charges. . They were detained for two weeks at a government facility in Abuja and their passports were confiscated, their families said.
“There are no clear answers about anything, like how he is doing or what will happen to him when he returns. And not knowing that is killing me.” Gambarian’s wife, Gambarian Yuki.
The detention reportedly occurred on February 26, a day after the pair arrived in Nigeria in response to an invitation from authorities to resolve an ongoing dispute with the exchange. Both Gambarian and Anjarwala are known to have been visited by officials from the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office, but the family added that Nigerian government security guards attended the meetings, limiting privacy.
Nigerian authorities have stepped up scrutiny of cryptocurrency platforms amid the country’s economic challenges, including a significant devaluation of the naira and high inflation rates. To curb the currency’s decline, the government previously ordered telecoms and internet service providers to restrict access to several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.