BREAKING: Binance CEO Richard Teng decries ‘deeply distressing ordeal’ for jailed exec in Nigeria

Breaking 10 weeks of silence on Binance’s ongoing crisis in Nigeria, CEO Richard Teng posted a lengthy blog on the exchange’s website Tuesday decrying the arrest and imprisonment of executive Tigran Gambaryan.

Teng also countered the Nigerian government’s allegations that Binance was facilitating money laundering and currency market manipulation in Africa’s most populous nation.

“The ordeal has been deeply distressting for Tigran, his family and friends, as well as the entire Binance community,” Teng wrote.

He clarified that Binance shut down its peer-to-peer trading platform in Nigeria itself, and not at the behest of the government.

“To remove any doubt about suggestions that we had played a role in the country’s currency crisis and as a good faith gesture, I made the difficult decision earlier this month to turn off our P2P product on the Binance platform for NIgeria,” he wrote.

The blog post marked the first time Teng has commented in detail about the situation in Nigeria.

For almost three months, Nigerian anti-corruption officials have slammed Binance, the world’s top crypto exchange and one of the industry’s most influential companies, with enforcement actions.

They have accused the company of facilitating $35 million in money laundering transactions for criminals and aiding market manipulators who are destroying the value of the nation’s fiat currency, the naira. They have also accused the company of tax evasion.

Legal war on crypto

The authorities have expanded their investigation to encompass all the peer-to-peer crypto exchanges operating in the nation. For all intents and purposes, Nigeria has declared a legal war on cryptocurrencies.

In March, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, charged two Binance and two of its executives: Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crimes compliance and a former special agent with the US Internal Revenue Service, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a UK lawyer and Binance’s regional head based in Kenya.

Gambaryan, who is imprisoned, will stand trial beginning May 17, even though he has yet to hear from a judge on whether he can post bail.

Anjarwalla managed to elude his guards on March 22 and escape Nigeria. He is now the target of an Interpol Red Notice.

Binance and the two men have denied the allegations, and Gambaryan’s lawyer has said his client is a “state-sanctioned hostage” of Nigeria’s legal crackdown on the company.

Edward Robinson is DL News’ story editor. Have a tip? Contact him at ed@dlnews.com.