On the second day of Tigran Gambaryan’s money laundering trial in Nigeria, the jailed Binance executive was called to the dock.
He immediately fainted.
Supported by one of his lawyers, Gambaryan was helped to a chair to recover.
The head of Binance’s financial crime compliance unit looked gaunt and stressed, proceedings in the Abuja court monitored by DL News on Thursday showed.
Doctor’s note
Gambaryan’s lead attorney, Mark Mordi, attributed his client’s collapse to his worsening health as he completes his eighth week of incarceration in the African nation’s prison system.
Mordi presented the court with a doctor’s note, but did not disclose details of Gambaryan’s condition.
Mordi asked the court for an adjournment to allow his client to receive medical attention, and Justice Emeka Nwite agreed.
He fixed June 20 and 21 for the resumption of the trial.
The development marks yet another grave turn in the crisis that has befallen Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, in one of Africa’s most important markets.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Gambaryan, a colleague, and Binance itself in April with money laundering in connection with $35 million in transactions.
In addition, Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service, or FIRS, indicted the company and the executives in April on alleged tax violations.
Not guilty
Binance, Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the company’s regional head based in Africa, have denied money laundering the charges. And Gambaryan has pleaded not guilty.
On May 17, the court rejected his bid to be released on bail during the trial after finding him to be a flight risk.
However, court proceedings for the tax violation trial have suffered numerous setbacks with the most recent happening on Wednesday as legal proceedings were stalled when Gambaryan did not appear in court.
FIRS blamed the Nigerian Correctional Service, which is in charge of the nation’s prisons, for failing to deliver the Binance executive to court.
The tax agency was planning to arraign Gambaryan on the tax charges.
The delay on Wednesday prompted the court to postpone the tax violation arraignment to July 14.
Parlay
Binance’s crisis in Nigeria has escalated from a regulatory dispute to a full-blown criminal case.
Nigeria’s government blamed Binance for causing the country’s currency woes by allegedly allowing foreign exchange racketeers to operate on its peer-to-peer trading platform.
Binance sought to settle the dispute by sending two of its executives to parlay with government officials in February but ended up having its employees detained by the government.
Red notice
Gambaryan, a former special agent of the US Internal Revenue Service based near Atlanta, and Anjarwalla, a British lawyer, were detained in late February and held in a government guest house.
Anjarwalla escaped a month later with a Kenyan passport and is the target of an Interpol red notice.
Binance has condemned Gambaryan’s prolonged incarceration with the company CEO Richard Teng stating that the executive has no decision-making powers and should not be held responsible for company policies and practices.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.