Iyin Aboyeji: “Why it is time for Nigeria to let Binance’s Tigran Gambaryan go home”
Iyin ‘E’ Aboyeji has weighed in on the detention of Tigran Gambaryan, Binances’s head of financial crime compliance, in Nigeria saying the nation would miss out on the benefits of digital assets in the coming years.
Mr Gambaryan has been detained in Nigeria since February in the notorious Kuje prison alongside the likes of terrorist group Boko Haram since fellow Binance employee Nadeem Anjarwalla escaped custody in March.
Earlier today, he was denied bail by a Nigerian judge very much to Binance’s disappointment. “We are deeply disappointed by the court’s decision to deny Tigran bail, particularly given his deteriorating health. He has been unlawfully detained for over 220 days,” a statement read.
In a LinkedIn post, Iyin Aboyeji explained that the worries about money laundering and tax evasion the Nigerian government has about cryptocurrency are valid, we may as a result miss out on a generational opportunity to participate in the global digital assets revolution.
Read his full statement here
This will not make me popular with my friends in Abuja but there comes a time when the bitter truth must be said. It is time for our government to let Mr Tigran go home. Why?
Last month, the CEO of Binance and mastermind of its regulatory defiance CZ was released from a U.S. jail cell in Seattle after a four-month imprisonment and over 5 billion dollars in fines paid in the U.S. and all over the world.
Today it will be almost eight months since Mr Tigran, a contractor and celebrated American financial crime and compliance investigator was detained for essentially trying to clean up CZ and Binance’s mess in Nigeria.
While Nigeria has significant valid concerns around tax evasion, money laundering, currency manipulation and terrorism financing as it concerns the Binance platform as well as considerable evidence of their culture of noncompliance around the world, this detention is not in line with global best practice. We stand alone in our approach to dealing with this challenge.
It is worth noting that even in the U.S. the CEO of Binance was sentenced for just four months. We really shouldn’t hold on to Mr Tigran for double that time. What most other countries have done is fine Binance. I believe we should toe the same line.
I have spoken to global businesses and investors in the digital asset space who are excited by the progressive regulation of the SEC and eager to engage on the basis of these new regulations but have had to shy away as a result of concerns about their personal safety in the wake of these arrests.
Nigeria may as a result miss out on a generational opportunity to participate in the global digital assets revolution which could gainfully employ thousands of our young people.
Rather than indefinitely detaining Mr Tigran, the government should assess back taxes, fines for regulatory non-compliance and other forfeiture of assets discovered to have been routed through Binance’s peer-to-peer systems against Binance and seek the US’ collaboration in ensuring prompt payment of these penalties by Binance.
This will not only put us back in line with global best practice on this matter but it will still send the strong message that while we are not an unreasonable people, any violation of our statutes will not go unpunished.
