The Nigerian government has dismissed “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.”
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said “while the Federal Government of Nigeria is reluctant to engage Mr. Gambaryan, due to the high-level diplomatic intervention that resolved his case, we are compelled to set the record straight to prevent his falsehoods from gaining traction.”
Gambaryan, a former US federal agent and Binance employee who was detained in Nigeria for eight months, had accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of scapegoating Binance to deflect blame for its failed economic policies.
He claimed that Tinubu’s government aimed to access Binance’s database of Nigerian users to implicate certain opposition figures in the depreciation of the Naira.
Gambaryan took to social media platform X on Friday to reveal what he called a “Mickey Mouse operation” orchestrated by Nigerian lawmakers and security agencies to divert attention from the real causes of Nigeria’s worsening financial crisis.
But the Minister of Information “categorically” denied claims made by Mr. Gambaryan against Nigerian officials, urging “the public to disregard these false accusations in their entirety.”
Part of Idris’s statement which he personally signed reads: “The first visit of Mr. Gambaryan and his colleagues to Nigeria was at their own discretion, and the Government was not officially involved. However, when the Government’s attention was drawn to an alleged bribery demand during that trip, an investigation was immediately launched, despite there being no formal complaint from anyone.
“Mr. Gambaryan’s second visit to Nigeria was part of a wider probe into the criminal manipulation of the Nigerian currency through peer-to-peer platforms like Binance, but investigators were frustrated by the tactics deployed by Gambaryan and his team.
“Mr. Gambaryan was released by the Nigerian government in October 2024 on humanitarian grounds and following a high-level diplomatic intervention that ended with tangible benefits for Nigeria. The government rejected Binance’s offer of a $5 million down payment in exchange for Mr. Gambaryan’s freedom, in favour of a more beneficial settlement with the American government.
“We categorically deny the retaliatory claims made by Mr. Gambaryan against Nigerian officials involved in his case, and we urge the public to disregard these false accusations in their entirety.
“It is essential to note that Mr. Gambaryan’s allegations are not only unsubstantiated but also lack credibility, given his apparent motive to discredit and intimidate those who ensured he faced justice.
“However, we are confident that both the Nigerian and American judicial systems will provide Mr. Gambaryan with a fair opportunity to substantiate his claims in court. Until then, we advise the public to exercise caution and not be swayed by Mr. Gambaryan’s unfounded and malicious claims.”
Meanwhile, Gambaryan, in a detailed post on X noted that a meeting was held on January 5, 2024 with the Department of State Services (DSS) where discussions focused on complying with instructions from the House of Representatives.
The executive also detailed how the government tried to manipulate the investigation into Binance to fabricate a narrative that Binance was responsible for an alleged outflow of $26 billion from Nigeria.
According to him: “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 a sold as a friendly meeting with the NSA, the head of the SEC, and the CBN governor and include 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 realized 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.”
In early 2024, Gambaryan travelled to Nigeria to address regulatory concerns between Binance and the Nigerian government. During this visit, Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained by Nigerian authorities on allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.
Gambaryan was held in Kuje Prison for eight months under harsh conditions, including severe health issues. He was eventually released in late 2024 following diplomatic interventions from the U.S. government.
In May 2024, Binance CEO Richard Teng publicly accused Nigerian officials of demanding a $150 million bribe in cryptocurrency to dismiss the charges against the company. Teng claimed that after initial meetings, representatives were approached with offers to settle the issues in exchange for the payment.
The Nigerian government denied these allegations, labelling them as diversionary tactics and blackmail attempts by Binance to deflect from the serious criminal charges it faced.
Gambaryan corroborated these claims, detailing how Nigerian lawmakers and security agencies attempted to coerce Binance into providing access to its Nigerian user database.
He alleged that the government sought to fabricate a narrative blaming Binance for an alleged outflow of $26 billion from Nigeria, thereby diverting attention from the country’s economic challenges.
Written with additional reports from SaharaReporters