Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan headed home after 8-month detention in Nigeria

Gambaryan can now leave Nigeria to seek medical attention

article-image

ANTON ZUBCHEVSKYI/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Over seven months later, Nigeria has finally dropped the charges against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan. 

Gambaryan, per a press release, left Nigeria’s Kuje prison on Wednesday night and is on his way back to his family in the United States.

The Nigerian government charged Gambaryan alongside his employer with money laundering violations, though the case was primarily focused on Binance. The crypto exchange previously denied the charges. 

Read more: Binance’s woes in Nigeria continue to mount

“The government has reviewed the case and, taken into consideration that the second defendant (Mr. Gambaryan) is an employee of the first defendant (Binance Holdings Limited), whose status in the matter has more impact than the second defendant’s, and also taking into consideration some critical international and diplomatic reasons, the state seeks to discontinue the case against the second defendant,” lawyers for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told a court earlier this week.

Just a few months before, the government also dropped tax evasion charges it had also filed against both Gambaryan and Binance

“​​The past eight months have been a living nightmare. I wish it hadn’t taken this long for his release, or that his health had not declined so much, but we can now focus on healing as a family,” Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, said in a statement.

Loading Tweet..

The same day that the government dropped the charges against Gambaryan, the US announced a “bilateral liaison” with Nigeria focused on crypto and illicit finance. 

“The United States reaffirms our commitment to a close partnership with Nigeria, and the US Department of Justice is continuing its coordination with the Government of Nigeria to build its capacity to pursue cybercrime investigations and prosecutions,” the government’s press release said.

Bloomberg reported that the money laundering case was dismissed due to Gambaryan’s health issues. Not even two weeks ago, the court denied his bail despite his ongoing medical problems. 

Gambaryan’s health has suffered during his detention in Nigeria, where he’s been held in Kuje prison since the spring. He suffers from a herniated disk, and previously battled pneumonia. 

Binance told Blockworks — and Nigeria — that Gambaryan wasn’t a “decision maker” at the company, meaning he was not in control of any actions taken by the company itself numerous times since he was detained back in February. Yuki Gambaryan, reiterated the statement from Binance.

Gambaryan’s detention not only grabbed the attention of Binance CEO Richard Teng, who published a blog on the ongoing detention.

“It is useful to point out that Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance. The government has said that we made $26 [billion] in revenue from Nigeria in 2023. That is not the case. The $26 [billion] figure is the total transaction volume from 2023,” Gambaryan wrote in August.

Politicians from the US government visited Gambaryan earlier this year, also calling on Nigeria to release the executive. Rep. French Hill called the situation “outrageous” in September after videos surfaced of a visibly distressed Gambaryan entering the Nigerian courtroom. 

Prior to his time at Binance, Gambaryan was a “legendary” IRS agent who helmed multiple investigations into people tied to the Silk Road. 

Wired’s Andy Greenberg — who wrote the book “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency,” with Gambaryan as the protagonist — called the former IRS agent “kind of a legendary figure in the crypto crime investigation world” in a podcast.

Updated Oct. 24, 2024 at 11:05 am ET: Added tweet from Binance.

Updated Oct. 24, 2024 at 10:44 am ET: Added statement from Nigerian government and modified headline to reflect update regarding Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The House on Thursday passed the CLARITY Act, a landmark cryptocurrency market structure bill

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro