Two lawmakers, French Hill and Chrissy Houlahan, from the United States of America have paid a visit to the Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, in detention amid an ongoing probe in Nigeria.
Hill, a US House Rep, said in an X post on Friday, that he and his colleague, Houlahan, visited the executive in Kuje Prison, Abuja.
Hill said they found Gambaryan in a terrible medical condition including malaria and pneumonia.
“Yesterday, @RepHoulahan and I visited with US citizen Tigran Gambaryan in Kuje Prison in Nigeria. We found him suffering from the conditions there, as he has malaria and double pneumonia, and he reports that he has lost significant weight. Even worse, he’s being denied access to adequate medical attention.
“Although I am pleased that Nigeria dropped tax evasion charges against Tigran on 6/14, it’s my view that he’s being wrongfully detained on charges related to money laundering.
“Tigran has devoted his professional life to fighting money laundering and tax evasion, having spent ten years as an IRS Special Agent where he successfully led cyber and financial crime investigations,” Hill said.
Hill and Houlahan are part of the 12 politicians who requested President Biden and the hostage affairs unit to facilitate the release of Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan who is currently being detained by Nigerian authorities on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
In a June 4 letter to President Biden, Secretary Anthony Blinken and the Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger D. Carstens the US politicians claimed that Tigran Gambaryan was being wrongfully detained by the Nigerian government and immediate action needs to be taken to prevent a further worsening of the situation.
The politicians argued in the letter that the charges against Gambaryan which includes money laundering and tax evasion are baseless and have been done by Nigerian authorities with the motive of extorting Binance.
They also stressed his deteriorating health issue citing that Gambaryan who is a United States citizen tested positive for malaria and is yet to receive adequate treatment.
On February 28th that Nigerian officials had detained two high-ranking executives from Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange.
Among those detained were Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British Kenyan serving as the regional manager for Africa, and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old American responsible for financial crime compliance at Binance.
Their visit to Nigeria coincided with the government’s recent crackdown on several cryptocurrency trading platforms.
In response to the detention of its executives, Binance decided to cease trading the Nigerian naira against popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and tether on its exchange platform.