Congress to Weigh Call for ‘Immediate Release’ of Jailed Binance Exec

The U.S. Congress Foreign Affairs Committee agreed to a resolution Tuesday regarding Tigran Gambaryan’s imprisonment in Nigeria. Now the resolution will go to the House of Representatives.

The official document urges the government of Nigeria to “immediately release” the Binance executive, and for the U.S. government to formally declare him a “citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government.”

Gambaryan was taken into custody in February by Nigerian authorities. Since then, his family says that his health has significantly deteriorated, as he suffers from a herniated disc among other ailments.

The recent resolution states that there is no legal basis for the continued detention of Gambaryan, and claims that Nigeria has admitted that he is being tried in lieu of pursuing legal action against Binance. As a result, it urges the Nigerian government to release Gambaryan from imprisonment.

The resolution document calls the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act (also known as the Levinson Act) into play. This is a framework that defines which cases fall under the “unlawfully or wrongfully detained” umbrella, and the same act that helped release WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia.

“[The act] serves merely as a framework, outlining the processes and resources for the U.S. government to pursue accountability and secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans,” Andrew Rossow, digital media attorney with Minc Law and CEO of AR Media Consulting, told Decrypt.

Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, told Decrypt in an interview this week that the company hopes that the U.S. government will declare that Gambaryan is “unlawfully held” in Nigeria. This resolution asks the U.S. government to formally determine and publicly identify the Binance executive as such.

“Remember, the U.S. and Nigeria have a longstanding partnership that has spanned more than six decades,” Rossow told Decrypt. “If Nigeria chooses to ignore, this will undeniably create a strain on these international relations.”

A Binance spokesperson told Decrypt that the company is “deeply grateful for the ongoing efforts of members of the U.S. House of Representatives for their tireless work to bring Tigran home to his family.”

A notable concern is that the executive’s health appears to be worsening to an alarming extent, resulting in him collapsing to the floor during a court hearing earlier this month. The resolution specifically calls for Nigeria to provide “unrestricted medical access” to Gambaryan, and for his “universally recognized human rights” to be provided. This comes after repeated requests for doctor visits, which the document claims have been slow to be acknowledged.

Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crime compliance and a former IRS agent, has been held in Nigeria for eight months. Both Gambaryan and Binance have been accused of laundering $35 million and manipulating the forex market.

Nigerian authorities invited Gambaryan to a meeting in February, where he was detained and required to surrender his passport. He was detained alongside Nadeem Anjarwalla, who fled custody and escaped the country, leaving Gambaryan to face Nigerian authorities alone.

“All the support Tigran has been getting is proof of how brilliant he is, and shows how truly unjust the situation is,” Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, told Decrypt. “I want to thank all the people that have shown up for him, and I want to keep calling on the U.S. government to do everything they can to have an innocent American released from unlawful detention.”

“And of course, I am begging the Nigerian government to please release my innocent husband,” she added. “He does not deserve this.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward