The United States government is pressuring Nigeria to release a former executive of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
As ReadWrite reported at the time, Nigeria detained two Binance executive back in March. The two executives are Binance’s criminal investigations team Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla the regional manager for Africa based in Kenya.
A coordinated pressure campaign
The detention of former United States law enforcement officer Gambaryan has caused significant strain in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Anonymous sources cited by the New York Times claim that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken raised the issue with Nigerian state officials back in May.
Other United States diplomats have also reportedly urged for Gambaryan’s release in private conversations with Nigeria’s president, finance minister, attorney general and trade minister. The diplomats have also reasoned that he should be released on humanitarian grounds, since he suffered from malaria and a herniated disk.
Those claims follow Gambaryan’s lawyers requesting his bail on health grounds earlier this month. Gambaryan’s previous court appearances have seen him participate in crutches and complaining to a judge that he had been denied a wheelchair.
The Binance executive’s family also claimed that the Nigerian prison system failed to provide adequate medical care to him — leading to his health rapidly deteriorating. Gambaryan was arrested when he traveled to Nigeria to hold meetings with local officials.
Nigerian authorities claim that Binance harmed its economy by allowing capital to abandon the country as the Nigerian naira fiat currency was collapsing. Nigeria’s crackdown on the crypto industry and ban on cryptocurrency exchanges followed a significant devaluation of Nigeria’s naira fiat currency.
Market data indicates that the naira plunged to $0.00062 from $0.013 a year ago, or a loss of nearly 95 percent of its value against the dollar. While local officials blame cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported at the end of July that mismanagement also is to blame. The report said Nigeria’s country’s economy has stagnated for years, and “its resource riches plundered by a politically connected elite.”
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