The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, Richard Teng, has labelled the detention of the company’s executives in Nigeria as a “dangerous precedent” for companies globally has labelled the detention of the company’s executives in Nigeria as a “dangerous precedent” for companies globally.
Teng, who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday, said it was time to break the silence on the ongoing detention of Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance head of financial crime compliance.
Binance and two of its executives, Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, are facing individual trials on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, which the firm is challenging.
Anjarwalla escaped a lawful custody, and “fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport”, the office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser said in a statement.
On his part, Binance CEO said the executives first held meetings with Nigerian authorities in the country in January 2024.
He said on February 26, the Nigerian authorities at a follow-up meeting said the issues involving Binance were of national security and demanded that the exchange delist the naira currency from its platform and provide “granular-level” details on all Nigerian users.
“To invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide,” Teng said, in his strongest comments yet since the case started in February.
Teng stated that Gambaryan had been detained in Nigeria for over two months “on dubious ground”
In early March, Binance declared that it was halting all transactions and trading in naira.
“Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” said Teng.
He stated that Gambaryan should be permitted to return home while Binance and Nigerian authorities settle any disputes.
