Pressure campaign secures release of crypto executive from Nigerian prison

Tigran Gambaryan, head of financial crime compliance at Binance Holdings Ltd., attends court in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Gambaryan was accused alongside the company of charges including non-payment of value-added-tax and company in (Getty Images)

Crypto executive Tigran Gambaryan has been released from a Nigerian prison and is back in the U.S. following a high-profile pressure campaign by current and former government officials, members of Congress and state attorneys general who urged the Biden Administration to intervene on his behalf.

It’s unclear how much of a priority Gambaryan’s release was for the White House, but on Tuesday afternoon, President Biden held a call with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, expressing gratitude for his leadership in securing Gambaryan’s release. Last week, Nigerian officials dropped money laundering charges against the executive, allowing for his humanitarian release to seek medical treatment for worsening health issues.

Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and former IRS agent who now serves as Global Head of Financial Crime Compliance and Investigations for crypto exchange Binance, spent eight months in Nigeria’s Kuje prison after being arrested and charged with money laundering and tax evasion while traveling to the African nation on behalf of his employer.

The Nigerian government says it will proceed with the money laundering and tax evasion charges against Binance (which it denies) without Gambaryan.

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Sean Reyes, Utah attorney general, speaks during a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. A group of 50 attorneys general opened a broad investigation into whether advertising practices of Alpha (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"I appreciate Fox News and other media for covering my story and keeping my name alive," Gambaryan said in a statement provided through a spokesperson. "It’s equally important to continue raising awareness about the families affected by unjust detentions of Americans worldwide. We must remain committed to bringing every one of them home, standing together to ensure that no one is left behind."

In an exchange with this reporter via direct messages on X, Gambaryan said his top priority is reconnecting with his family—a wife and two young children—as well as dealing with health issues. While in prison, he suffered from malaria, pneumonia and complications from a herniated disc, which left him in a wheelchair.

Earlier this month, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and seventeen other state Attorneys General, including New York AG Letitia James, signed a bipartisan letter to Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asking them to designate Gambaryan as a hostage pursuant to the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEMAND RETURN OF CRYPTO EXECUTIVE DETAINED BY NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT

Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in front of displayed Binance logo in this illustration taken November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The 2019 law is named after FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared while traveling to Iran as a private investigator in 2007. It’s designed to give designated hostages and their families' priority in U.S. government efforts to secure release.

"Tigran Gambaryan is being unlawfully held by the Nigerian government under potentially life-threatening circumstances. This is not a partisan issue, but one of pure humanitarian concern and fundamental patriotic duty," Reyes stated.

The AGs letter followed similar missives from a group of one hundred former federal agents and DOJ prosecutors, some of whom had worked with Gambaryan during his time in government, as well as sixteen members of Congress urging the Biden Administration to repatriate the Binance executive.

Tigran Gambaryan, head of financial crime compliance at Binance Holdings Ltd., center, attends court in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Gambaryan was accused alongside the company of charges including non-payment of value-added-tax and co (David Exodus/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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In July, Republican House Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), representing Gambaryan from his home state of Georgia, introduced a bipartisan resolution alongside Rep. French Hill (R-AR) aimed at urging the Nigerian government to promptly release Gambaryan from prison. The bill, which garnered support from thirty-five Republicans and twelve Democrats, was co-drafted by former Florida Rep. Connie Mack IV, who also collaborated with the group of state attorneys general to lobby the Biden Administration for Gambaryan's release.

Mack, a four-term congressman from Florida's 14th district and the great-grandson of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, was approached by friends of Gambaryan’s to assist in his case due to Mack's prior experience lobbying for the return of an American citizen detained in Colombia in 2019.