Binance exec restates $150M bribery claim against Nigerian officials

Last May, Binance CEO Richard Teng claimed that Nigerian officials demanded a $150 million bribe to resolve the company’s regulatory issues.

Now, Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crime—who was detained in Nigeria last year—has backed these allegations, stating that lawmakers were behind the demand.

The details 

• In an interview with Wired, Gambaryan detailed the events that led to the bribery allegations and his detention in Nigeria.
• According to him, a seemingly friendly meeting with members of the Nigerian House of Representatives last January ended with a back-door demand for a $150 million payment. 
• The fee was to ‘make the problems go away,’ and was to be made in crypto directly into wallets belonging to Nigerian officials. 
• The Binance delegation in the country at the time refused and fled the next day.
• Gambaryan was later invited back to Nigeria, supposedly so authorities could investigate the bribery allegations.
• However, he was instead detained alongside Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional manager for East Africa.

Zoom in

• The Nigerian government dismissed the bribery claims as “outrageous” and “defamatory” in a statement shared on social media.
• It added that it had in fact been the party that rejected a $5 million down payment from Binance in exchange for Gambaryan’s freedom, a claim Wired corroborates. 

Key quotes 

• Gambaryan shared on social media: 

“At the House meeting, there were three members present ... As you may already know, this ended with them asking for a $150 million bribe, paid in cryptocurrency into their personal wallets.” 

• In response, a statement by Mohammed Idris, Nigerian minister of information and national orientation, reads: 

“The Federal Government of Nigeria notes with concern the outrageous allegations, misinformation, and defamatory statements being disseminated by Tigran Gambaryan, an American personnel of Binance who was recently tried in Nigeria for financial crimes.” 

Before now 

• In February, Binance’s Nigerian users were abruptly blocked from accessing the platform.
• In reality, the Nigerian government had directed telecommunications service providers in the country to restrict access to Binance’s platform alongside other notable crypto exchanges. 
• A few days later, Binance disabled its peer-to-peer trading platform in Nigeria and discontinued all trading pairs involving Nigeria’s local currency, the naira. 
• The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Nigeria also confirmed an inter-agency investigation into Binance shortly after news spread that two Binance bigwigs had been detained in the country. 
• While Anjarwalla engineered an escape in March, Gambaryan remained in custody, and he was eventually detained in a Nigerian prison where his health deteriorated over the following months. 
• In October, following diplomatic meetings behind the scenes and on account of his failing health, Gambaryan was released from the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja and transported to the United States.