Amid the bribing allegations, the Federal Government of Nigeria has vowed to pursue the criminal case against the crypto platform, Binance and its officials, to a logical end.
Senior officials of President Bola Tinubu’s administration have refuted bribery allegations made by Binance CEO Richard Teng in a blog post published by the New York Times. Teng had accused certain individuals of asking for a $150 million bribe in cryptocurrency to resolve a criminal charge against the company. The officials have dismissed the allegations as baseless and untrue.
The NYT yesterday reported that on a trip to Nigeria in January, Tigran Gambaryan, a compliance officer with the exchange, received an unsettling message: The company had 48 hours to make a payment of roughly $150m in crypto.
Gambaryan, a former United States law enforcement agent, understood the message as a request for a bribe from someone in the Nigerian government.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the incident allegedly occurred before Gambaryan and a colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were arrested and detained on the orders of the National Security Adviser. Anjarwalla subsequently escaped and has been traced to Kenya.
Gambaryan has been held in Kuje Correctional Facility in the last four weeks, after he was transferred there from a safe house on April 8.
Both Binance and Gambaryan are facing trial for tax evasion and money laundering.
The court moved the start date of their trial from last Thursday to May 17.
According to two people familiar with the investigation, Gambaryan wrote a three-page report outlining the payment request and delivered it to Binance’s lawyers, as reported by NYT.
It is also stated that he informed contacts within the Nigerian administration about the incident.
Binance had denied that Gambaryan had any “decision-making power” in the company.
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The case is the latest legal headache for Binance, which agreed to a $4.3bn fine last year to settle charges by the US government that it allowed criminal activity to flourish on its platform.
In April, the company’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in those violations.
The spokesman for the ONSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, said in a text message to NYT that the Federal Government would make its case “on the strength of the facts and evidence, in accordance with due process.”
“We are confident that Nigeria has a good case. Binance equally will have every opportunity under the rule of law to make its case and see justice delivered,” Mijinyawa said.
In his post, Teng laid out the history of Binance’s engagement with Nigeria, which has become a hotspot for the crypto industry.
It has the second-highest rate of crypto adoption in the world behind India, according to Chainalysis, a data firm.
In 2023, the financial regulators issued a statement directing Binance to stop soliciting investors in Nigeria.
Binance halted its advertising in the country and offered to meet with government officials, Teng said.
On January 8, Teng said Gambaryan and a group of Binance employees met with lawmakers, but the meeting was contentious
The lawmakers, he wrote, read aloud a list of accusations against Binance, including tax violations.
They also threatened to pursue an arrest warrant for Teng, the article said.
As the Binance employees left the meeting, Teng wrote they were approached by “unknown persons” who suggested that they make a payment to settle the allegations.
Later, a local lawyer representing Binance spoke with someone purporting to be an agent of the House committee, Teng further claimed in his article, adding that the purported agent demanded “a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away,”
The amount was roughly $150m, four people familiar with the matter said, according to a Bloomberg report, quoting NYT sources.
“Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed. We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer,” Teng wrote in his post.
Teng claimed that Binance had received assurances that Gambaryan would be safe if he returned to Nigeria.
According to him, a company adviser with deep local connections recommended that Binance officials meet with the ONSA.
However, a prosecutor with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ekele Iheanacho, dismissed Teng’s allegation, vowing to prosecute the case to the end.
Iheanacho, one of the lawyers prosecuting the Binance officials, said, ‘’Nobody demanded any money, the case is being taken to a logical conclusion. He’s making it up although I am not aware of any such allegations. As far as I am concerned, the charges are going on and we are making every effort to ensure that we get to a logical end.’’