Tigran Gambaryan appears to finally be free.
From the moment Nigerian authorities placed the Binance executive under house arrest in February to the sudden decision Wednesday to drop charges against him, Tigran Gambaryan has wanted one thing — to fly home to Atlanta, Georgia, and be reunited with his wife Yuki and their daughter.
Now, after months of anguish and futility, Gambaryan may be clear to do just that.
According to a person familiar with the case, Gambaryan was released from custody on Wednesday but it remains unclear whether he has arrived at the US embassy, or how soon he may be on his way home.
Questions
Still, the 40-year-old compliance executive at Binance, the world’s top cryptocurrency exchange, leaves a number of questions in his wake.
Did pressure from Washington finally persuade the Nigerian government to reverse course and free Gambaryan?
Is the former US federal agent on his way home?
And what happens next to Binance, and the embattled crypto scene in Nigeria, as the state continues to pursue its prosecution of the exchange on money laundering charges?
While these queries remain unanswered, Gambaryan’s part in this dramatic case appears to have come to an end.
Here’s a timeline of the case:
February 26, 2024
Nigerian officials place Tigran Gambaryan, the head of Binance’s financial crimes compliance unit, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the exchange’s regional head in Kenya, under house arrest in Abuja. They make no public statement.
People familiar with the action tell DL News that officials at Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are holding Binance and the two men largely responsible for a 90% plunge in the value of the naira, the nation’s fiat currency.
The authorities allege Binance’s digital version of the naira is enabling bad actors to manipulate the currency. Moreover, they say Binance is permitting criminals to launder illicit sums on its crypto exchange.
February
According to people familiar with the matter, Nigerian authorities demand that Binance disclose personal and transaction data for millions of customers in the nation. Binance declines to do so.
March 22
Anjarwalla eludes his guards during a visit to a mosque and uses a Kenyan passport he did not surrender to escape from the airport in Nigeria’s capital. Nigerian officials later say Anjarwalla has turned up in Kenya and issue an INterpol Red Notice.
March 29
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency charges Binance and Gambaryan with money laundering in connection to an alleged $35 million in illicit transactions.
April
Nigerian officials freeze 1,100 bank accounts of crypto traders as part of a crackdown on alleged currency manipulation, according to court documents. The action is connected to the state’s legal battle with Binance.
Gambaryan is remanded to Kuje Prison on April 8 after a judge denied him bail on the money laundering charge.
May 7
Binance CEO Richard Teng accuses Nigerian officials of trying to shake down Binance by demanding a $150 million bribe from Gambaryan when he visited the country in January.
“Our counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning,” Teng said in a blog post.
May 23
Gambaryan collapses in court on the second day of his trial. He is suffering from malaria and pneumonia, according to his lawyers and family members.
Justice Emeka Nwite directed prison officials to take Gambaryan to Nizayime Hospital, an upscale private medical facility in Abuja, the capital, for treatment, DL News learns from a person familiar with the decision.
June 8
In an exclusive interview, Yuki Gambaryan tells DL News that she expected more help from the US government in pressing for her husband’s release from a Nigerian prison. “I am shocked at how long it took for us to get to this point,” she said. “It feels like the US government just got to the starting line now, which should have happened a long time ago.”
June 21
Two members of the US Congress — Representative French Hill, an Arkansas Republican, and Representative Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania — visit Gambaryan in Kuje Prison and report that his condition is worsening. “He’s being denied access to adequate medical attention,” Hill says on X.
July 5
Olubukola Akinwunmi, the head of payments policy and regulation at the Central Bank of Nigeria, testifies at Gambaryan’s trial that Binance was operating illegally in the nation.
September 27
Linda Greenfield-Thomas, the US ambassador to the United Nations, tells Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, that resolving Gambaryan’s plight was important for US relations with Africa’s most populous nation.
October 11
Justice Nwite dismisses Gambaryan’s bail petition on a technicality and he is remanded to prison for the duration of his trial.
October 18
Gambaryan misses a court appearance after his condition worsens. A prison official tells the court he was “too ill” to make the journey.
October 23
Nigerian prosecutors drop charges against Tigran Gambaryan and tell the court he should not be held responsible for actions taken by his employer, Binance.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com. Ed Robinson is the story editor at DL News. Contact him at ed@dlnews.com.