It has been almost eight months since Binance executive and former IRS agent, Tigran Gambaryan, has been wrongfully detained in Nigeria over a feud between the African nation and the world’s largest crypto exchange. In the latest blow to his fight for freedom, he was denied bail by a Nigerian judge on Friday despite his deteriorating health.
Gambaryan was jailed in February after visiting Nigeria to address allegations that Binance was undermining the local currency, which began to crash in May 2023. Economists have laid the blame for this on corruption and economic mismanagement by the country’s leaders—but, in what critics say is an effort to find a scapegoat, Nigerian officials arrested Gambaryan and another Binance executive and charged them with financial crimes.
