TheCable

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, says Tigran Gambaryan, its head of financial crime compliance, should not be held responsible for its operations in Nigeria.

In a statement on Wednesday, a Binance spokesperson said Gambaryan is not part of the management nor has decision-making power.

On February 28, Gambaryan, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s regional manager for Africa were detained by the Nigerian authorities.

Although Anjarwalla has escaped from the custody of the office of the national security adviser (ONSA), the two executives, alongside Binance, are expected to be charged in court by the federal government for tax evasion and money laundering on Thursday.

Binance said Gambaryan, an American citizen known globally as someone fully dedicated to law enforcement, was hired in 2021 to help Binance fix past compliance issues.

“As the head of Binance’s Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team, he has been a strong advocate for Binance to develop policies and build compliance capabilities that set new industry standards,” Binance said.

“In 2022 and 2023, Tigran’s financial crime compliance team assisted global law enforcement in freezing and seizing more than $2.2B worth of assets, including more than $285M in cooperation with United States Agencies like the FBI, DOJ, DEA, and others.

“In the past several years, he, along with his FCC team, responded to more than 600 information requests coming from Nigerian law enforcement agencies or related to investigations pertinent to Nigeria. 

“The information provided helped tackle crimes ranging from scams and fraud to money laundering, blackmail, kidnapping, and extortion, leading to multiple asset freezes and seizures, totalling more than $400,000.”

Binance also said Gambaryan’s team provided multiple training sessions for Nigerian security agencies on the role of exchanges in the digital-asset ecosystem. 

This, the firm, said included a three-hour online workshop for 70 officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in mid-2023 and, late last year, two full-day sessions for EFCC officials in Abuja and Lagos, with more than 30 investigators attending each of them.

“Tigran is a strict law enforcement professional and is not part of Binance management,” Binance said.

“While he has left official service of the U.S. government, he has remained fully committed to the role of law enforcement officer ever since, operating as a global advocate for good governance and transparent regulatory financial practices.

“Binance respectfully requests that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making power in the company, is not held responsible while current discussions are ongoing between Binance and Nigerian government officials.”

‘A FORMER U.S AGENT’

Binance said Gambaryan served as a U.S. federal agent investigating cases involving national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography, tax evasion, and Bank Secrecy Act violations.

“As part of the elite cyber investigations team in the U.S. Treasury Department’s IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) unit, Tigran led several multi-billion dollar investigations, including the Silk Road corruption investigations, BTC-e bitcoin exchange, and the Mt. Gox hack,” the firm said.

Gambaryan also “played a pivotal role in probing Alphabay, Wall Street Marketplace, Welcome2Video, and the high-profile “VIP” Twitter hack, working alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the United States Secret Service”.

“Tigran later assumed the role of the IRS-CI representative at the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), focusing on national security and terrorism financing,” the firm said.

Due to Gambaryan’s exploit, Binance said a book, ‘Tracer’s in the Dark’, was written about his efforts to bring down some of history’s most notorious cyber criminals.