Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance, has denied the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) assertions about an alleged $26 billion outflow through the cryptocurrency exchange. Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were arrested after arriving in Nigeria in February 2024 to meet with government officials concerning Binance’s operations. They were arrested on allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.
While Anjarwalla fled, Gambaryan spent eight months in Nigeria’s Kuje Correctional Centre. The accusations were eventually dropped, and he left the nation in October 2024 owing to health issues and diplomatic pressure. On Friday, Gambaryan disputed the CBN’s data as misleading, clarifying that the amount represented cumulative trade volume rather than real funds leaving Nigeria.
“The $26 billion amount they kept quoting as some secret money exiting Nigeria is total nonsense. This information was provided in response to their request and was just a compilation of transaction statistics for Nigerians on the site,” he explained. Gambaryan went on to say, “This money did not leave Nigeria; it was simply people buying and selling cryptocurrency.”
For example, trading $100 a hundred times results in $10,000 in trade volume, despite the fact that you only used $100. Again, another example of them lying to hide their bogus inquiry.” CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso had previously said in February 2024 that Binance Nigeria was involved in fraudulent transactions of $26 billion from unknown sources.
Gambaryan also criticised Nigerian officials of blaming Binance for the naira’s devaluation, claiming that the currency’s decline was caused by government policies rather than cryptocurrency operations. “They were all aware that the naira’s devaluation was a direct result of Tinubu’s monetary policies, which depreciated the naira against the dollar.
I’m not arguing this policy move was incorrect, but everyone knew that eliminating government intervention would result in significant devaluation. Instead of acknowledging this, they made Binance a scapegoat,” he claimed. Binance departed the Nigerian market in March 2024, citing regulatory concerns and claims of enabling criminal transactions.
