The Nigerian government has replied to the corruption allegations levelled against its senior officials by Binance’s head of financial crime, Tigran Gambaryan.
The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, in a statement on Friday, Feb. 14, said 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.”
“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,” Mr Idris added.
He further stated that the Nigerian government is reluctant to engage Mr Gambaryan given the high-level of diplomatic intervention that resolved his case.
“… 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,” Mr Idris concluded in a lengthy statement.
Recall that Gambaryan and another Binance official, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained last year by the Nigerian government which accused their firm of money laundering and encouraging criminality in Nigeria.
While Mr Anjarwalla escaped custody in March 2024, Mr Gambaryan was detained until October 2024, when Nigeria dropped the charges against him following the US government’s intervention.
Following his release from detention, Gambaryan narrated his ordeal, claiming top Nigerian government official sought bribe to make his legal troubles go away.
In the exposé, Gambaryan accused Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, of seeking to personally benefit from Nigeria’s dispute with Binance (read here).
The crypto firm’s official also claimed that Mr Ribadu hired a US law firm to negotiate his release from detention while in Nigerian custody but the move failed due to their “incompetence and greed”.
Gambaryan made these allegations on Friday, Feb. 14, in a series of post on X.
In his posts, the Binance official mentioned the names of Nigerian lawmakers who allegedly demanded a $150 million bribe from him to stave off his arrest and prosecution.
Mr Idris, in his response, said the government investigated the allegations against the lawmakers. He, however, did not state the outcome of the investigation.
Narrating his ordeal and Nigeria’s interaction with the US, Gambaryan said Ribadu’s actions angered the US government.
He also alleged that Mr Ribadu, a highly decorated former anti-corruption chief, sought to profit from the controversy.
“Ribadu emphasized that he wanted billions in payouts to fund his future political ambition,” Gambaryan claimed.
In his tweet, the American also accused the Nigerian government of demanding citizens’ data from cryptocurrency companies to target members of opposition political parties.
“They tried to use us (Binance) to violate international privacy laws by demanding user data on all Nigerians to target opposition members allegedly ‘manipulating the price of the naira’,” he said.
