Detained Binance official trained EFCC officials, not part of management, crypto firm claims

The management of embattled crypto-currency firm, Binance Holdings Limited, has denied claims that one of its purported executives who is currently being detained in Nigeria, Tigran Gambaryan, is part of the company’s management team.

Gambaryan who was arrested on March 22 along with a director of the company, Nadeem Anjarwalla who later escaped and fled the country, was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja court on Thursday on charges of money laundering to the tune of $35,400,000.

However, the crypto-exchange giant, in a statement on Wednesday, said Gambaryan who is an American, only serves as a law enforcement officer for the firm and does not have the power to make decisions at the management level.

In the statement made available to Ripples Nigerian by a spokesperson for the company, the crypto firm said Gambaryan is “known globally as someone fully dedicated to law enforcement.”

The statement said, “Tigran was hired in 2021 to help Binance fix past compliance issues. As the head of Binance’s Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team, he has been a strong advocate for Binance to develop policies and build compliance capabilities that set new industry standards.

READ ALSO:Nigerian govt in talks with INTERPOL for extradition of escapee Binance Director, Anjarwalla

“In the past several years, he, along with his FCC team, responded to more than 600 information requests coming from Nigerian law enforcement agencies or related to investigations pertinent to Nigeria.

“Tigran’s team also provided multiple training sessions for Nigerian crime fighters on the role of exchanges in the digital-asset ecosystem. This included a three-hour online workshop for 70 Nigerian EFCC officials in mid-2023 and, late last year, two full-day sessions for EFCC officials in Abuja and Lagos, with more than 30 investigators attending each of them.

“Tigran is a strict law enforcement professional and is not part of Binance management.

It further said, “Binance respectfully requests that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making power in the company, is not held responsible while current discussions are ongoing between Binance and Nigerian government officials.”

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