Binance's Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Tigran Gambaryan, has refuted claims by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding an alleged $26 billion outflow through the crypto exchange.
Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were arrested after arriving in Nigeria in February 2024 for discussions with government officials about Binance's operations.
They were arrested on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. While Anjarwalla escaped, Gambaryan spent eight months in Nigeria's Kuje Correctional Centre. The charges were later dropped and he left the country in October 2024 due to health concerns and diplomatic pressure.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Gambaryan dismissed the CBN's figures as misleading, clarifying that the amount represented cumulative trade volume rather than actual funds leaving Nigeria.
"The $26 billion figure they kept pushing publicly as some mystery money escaping Nigeria is complete BS. This information was provided in response to their request and was simply cumulative trade data for Nigerians on the platform," he stated.
Gambaryan further explained, "This money didn't leave Nigeria-it was just people buying and selling crypto. For example, if you trade $100 a hundred times, that's $10,000 in trade volume, but in reality, you only used $100. Again, just another example of them lying to cover up their BS investigation."
CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso had previously alleged in February 2024 that Binance Nigeria was involved in suspicious transactions amounting to $26 billion from unidentified sources.
Gambaryan also accused Nigerian authorities of scapegoating Binance for the naira's devaluation, stating that the currency's decline resulted from government policies rather than crypto activities.
"They all knew that the naira's devaluation was a direct result of Tinubu's monetary policy, which depegged the naira from the dollar. I'm not saying this policy decision was wrong, but everyone understood that removing government intervention would lead to extreme devaluation. Instead of acknowledging this, they used Binance as a scapegoat," he asserted.
Binance exited the Nigerian market in March 2024 amid regulatory scrutiny and accusations of facilitating illicit transactions.
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