Key points to remember
Tigran Gambaryan, a former U.S. federal agent, has been detained in Nigeria for six months, and his physical and mental health is rapidly deteriorating.
Tigran is in severe pain and can no longer walk, but the Nigerian government has refused to provide him with the medical care he needs or access to a lawyer: these actions are unconstitutional. He has also been denied access to help from the US consulate.
The Nigerian government justifies Tigran’s detention with baseless claims linking Binance to the country’s economic problems, including the decline of the naira. This claim is not supported by any facts, as the text below will clarify.
There is no need to jail an innocent employee to answer for allegations against Binance: our company has resolved its issues with other countries around the world without involving its staff.
Binance calls for US government intervention and international advocacy. We urge the US government and citizens and organizations around the world to exert political pressure to secure Tigran’s release on humanitarian grounds and protest Nigeria’s unjust detention practices.
Tigran Gambaryan has been unjustly detained for six months now. His physical and mental health has deteriorated rapidly, and his situation is now more serious than ever: he is in severe pain and can no longer walk due to a herniated disc. However, the Nigerian government has refused to provide him with adequate medical care, including access to basic equipment such as a wheelchair.
In addition, authorities are not allowing him to see his lawyer even though his trial begins on September 2, which we understand is unconstitutional in Nigeria. A court has asked the government to release Tigran’s medical records, but after several months, this has still not been done. This week, Tigran was denied access to his representative at the US consulate. These actions are inexplicable.
I am deeply concerned about the long-term, potentially irreversible, physical and mental consequences that this horrific adventure is having on Tigran, and I once again call on the Nigerian government to allow him to return home to his family on humanitarian grounds so that he can obtain adequate medical treatment in the United States, recover, and return to the active life he once led.
Baseless allegations must not be used to keep Tigran prisoner
The reason given by the Nigerian government to justify the continued detention of Tigran is that “Binance is in the virtual sphere, and this accused is all we have.” This was stated by the prosecution counsel during the bail hearing, where he argued that Tigran should not be released on bail on the grounds that he was a flight risk.
This statement is far from true, and there is no need to jail an innocent employee to answer for the allegations against Binance. We have resolved our issues reasonably, collaboratively, and amicably with governments around the world, including the United States, Thailand, and most recently Brazil and India, all without threatening or harming the health of our employees.
The Nigerian government also claims that Binance was responsible for the decline of its currency, a claim that is not supported by any facts. Between 2021 and the end of 2022, the naira was trading in a relatively narrow price range: between 1:380 and 1:440 to the USD. At that time, we offered our users who wanted to gain exposure to crypto certain services as value-added services. The end of the government’s peg of the naira in June 2023 caused the currency’s value to fall by the largest amount in history, according to experts, from $1:460 in June 2023 to $1:900 by the end of 2023. This downward trend has continued since then, and on July 31, the naira was trading at a new all-time low of $1:1,660, a 50% drop from the start of 2024. This decline continued despite Binance shutting down some services in Nigeria in February 2024. As economists have more elegantly explained, the evolution of a country’s currency is attributable to a variety of macroeconomic factors.
We should point out that Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance. Their government has stated that we generated $26 billion in revenue from the country in 2023, but that is not true: $26 billion is the total trading volume since 2023. The calculation of trading volume can be explained as follows: if someone had $1,000 and traded that amount 1,000 times, that would be $1 million in trading volume. Our real revenue is from charging a small percentage of the transaction fees, and we pride ourselves on offering our users some of the lowest fees of any exchange in the world.
Call to action
Tigran is a proud American who should not be subjected to such arbitrary treatment. I sincerely hope that the U.S. government and political apparatus can exercise their political will and use their powers of persuasion to bring Tigran home as soon as possible so that he can receive proper treatment and be reunited with his family and loved ones. The U.S. administration and lawmakers have the authority to designate Tigran as an American citizen “unlawfully detained” abroad, and they have good reason to do so.
Citizens around the world must also raise their voices and concerns to convince the Nigerian government that such unilateral action without solid foundation will harm the country’s economic development and long-term well-being. The senior members of the Nigerian government have decided to arbitrarily and illegally detain Tigran, and they can just as easily make the right decision to let Tigran, a former U.S. federal agent, return home. For humanitarian reasons, we appeal to all decision-makers in Nigeria to allow Tigran to return home safely to his wife and two young children.
Once these issues are resolved, we look forward to working with the Nigerian government to support the development of the Web3 sector, create more opportunities for its young and talented workforce, and support efforts to attract more international direct investment.
Richard Teng, CEO of Binance.
