A Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, who was detained in Nigeria for some months, has alleged that three Nigerian federal lawmakers demanded $150 million (approximately N225bn as of February 14) as bribe from him.
LEADERSHIP recalls that in January 2024, Gambaryan and another Binance official Nadeem were detained by the Nigerian government over accusation of money laundering, tax evasion and encouraging financial criminality in Nigeria.
Gambaryan was later released after the Nigerian government dropped the charges against him following the intervention of the United States government and reports of his deteriorating health months later.
However, in a lengthy post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday, the Binance executive narrated his experience in Nigeria while in detention and on trial.
According to Gambaryan, several lawmakers set up a meeting and demanded a $150 million bribe from him, which was to be paid in cryptocurrency into their wallets.
He claimed that the lawmakers included Peter Akpanke, Philip Agbese and Ginger Obinna Onwusibe, all members of the House of Representatives.
“The DSS was involved in the House of Representatives matter. We met with them at their office on Friday, January 5, 2024, as a prerequisite to our meeting with the House of Representatives. They alluded to the fact that we had to comply with whatever the House members instructed us to do.
“At the House meeting, there were three members present. Two of them were Peter Akpanke and Philip Agbese, both working under the leadership of Ginger Obinna Onwusibe. There was a third House member, but I don’t recall his name.
“They set up fake cameras and media to make the meeting appear official, but the cameras weren’t even plugged in. As you may already know, this ended with them asking for a $150 million bribe, paid in cryptocurrency into their personal wallets. A Mickey Mouse operation at its best.
“@NuhuRibadu invited us to the official meeting and worked through Sa’ad Abubakar. Another key figure in this situation was Hamma Adama Belloji. Ogunjobi was just a pawn; they used him too.
“This was sold as a friendly meeting with the NSA, the head of the SEC, and the CBN governor and included the discussion of the bribe that was solicited by the House of Representatives.
“The $26 billion figure they kept pushing publicly as some mystery money escaping Nigeria is complete BS. This information was provided in response to their request and was simply cumulative trade data for Nigerians on the platform. This money didn’t leave Nigeria — it was just people buying and selling crypto.
“For example, if you trade $100 a hundred times, that’s $10,000 in trade volume, but in reality, you only used $100. Again, just another example of them lying to cover up their BS investigation.
“They lied about Nadeem escaping during mosque prayers. In reality, he returned and escaped afterward. I don’t know exactly how he managed to flee. He emailed me in November, but we haven’t discussed the details of his escape. It’s possible he paid someone off, but I have no proof.
“If Belloji had simply checked his passport for a visa, he would have realised that Nadeem did not use that passport to travel to Nigeria.
“They sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy and the British High Commission, falsely claiming that we were voluntarily participating in strategic talks. This was a blatant lie.
“Nadeem did not escape lawful detention — we were being held illegally. Belloji even admitted that he would fabricate evidence to obtain a court order to detain us for 14 days.
“Once the court order expired, they were unable to get an extension from the judge. At that point, they continued holding us illegally and had no justification for doing so.
“There was a lot of noise about using Interpol to capture Nadeem. As someone who has been involved in multiple extradition cases, I can confidently say this was a joke.
“Extradition is a lengthy legal process, and no rational judge in Kenya or wherever would ever approve extradition for someone who escaped illegal detention at the hands of rogue law enforcement — especially when that detention involved holding employees hostage to pressure their employer. All noise.
“They tried to use us to violate international privacy laws by demanding user data on all Nigerians to target opposition members allegedly ‘manipulating the price of the naira.’ However, they all knew that the naira’s devaluation was a direct result of Tinubu’s monetary policy, which depegged the naira from the dollar.
“I’m not saying this policy decision was wrong, but everyone understood that removing government intervention would lead to extreme devaluation. Instead of acknowledging this, they used Binance as a scapegoat,” Gambaryan narrated.
