Two U.S. Congressmen have submitted a resolution to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs urging the government to consider a Binance executive detained in Nigeria as a hostage.
In the resolution, Rep. French Hill (R-AR) and Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) demanded the release of Binance’s head of financial crime compliance Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen who has been held in custody in Nigeria since February.
Calling Gambaryan’s detention “a clear violation of his rights and a grave injustice,” McCormick urged the Nigerian government to release him, and called on the U.S. government to “do everything in its power to secure the release of one of our citizens wrongfully detained abroad.”
Gambaryan was first detained alongside his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, who subsequently fled custody and escaped the country. Immediately afterward, Nigeria’s Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Binance and the two executives with money laundering to the tune of $35 million and manipulating the foreign exchange (forex) market.
Binance was also initially charged with tax violations, but those have since been dropped by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
In their resolution, Hill and McCormick argued that Gambaryan is “being tried in lieu of pursuing legal
action against his employer,” adding that during a court hearing, the Nigerian government stated that Gambaryan was “the only thing we have to hold on to.” Hill added that Gambaryan should be released, returned to the U.S. and the “fabricated” charges against him dropped.
Hill, who recently visited Gambaryan in the Nigerian prison where he is being held, reported that his health is “deteriorating” in custody, while McCormick urged the Nigerian authorities to provide Gambaryan with “the necessary medical care.”
During a court hearing in May, Gambaryan collapsed and was subsequently put on medication for malaria. His family claim that he has been “suffering immensely” while being held in the Kuje prison, noting that he has complained of numbness in his foot, back pain and been diagnosed with double pneumonia and malaria.
Nigerian officials have refuted the claims, asserting that he has no “serious health condition” and is doing “fine” in detention.
In a statement accompanying the announcement of the resolution, Gambaryan’s wife Yuki said that, “I appreciate Congressional focus on obtaining Tigran’s immediate release from custody in Nigeria and Representative McCormick’s continued attention to Tigran’s plight.” She added that she was “deeply concerned” about his health, and hoped that the U.S. government’s involvement “will expedite the process of getting him released.”
“I just want him home so he can get the proper medical care he desperately needs and so that he can heal,” Mrs Gambaryan said, adding, “He needs to be freed right now.”
