Wife of Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan calls on US to intervene as his health worsens in Nigeria

The wife of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan urged the U.S. State Department to declare that her husband is being wrongfully detained as his health continues to worsen in a Nigerian prison. 

Yuki Gambaryan said her husband is in intense pain from a herniated disc and cannot walk. He also is constantly getting respiratory infections and needs to get his tonsils removed, she said, in a podcast called Designated, hosted by Yaya Fanusie and released on Tuesday by Illicit Edge. Fanusie is a former CIA analyst and is currently the director of policy for AML & Cyber Risk at the Crypto Council for Innovation.

The U.S. State Department needs to step in, Yuki Gambaryan said during the podcast.

"One thing I would like to see happen very soon is the State Department declaring Tigran formally as wrongfully detained," she told Fanusie. 

Gambaryan, a former agent for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, and another Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained after arriving in Nigeria in February amid accusations of Binance making illegal transaction profits locally. Criminal charges were filed against them on Feb. 28. Anjarwalla later escaped from custody on March 22.

Yuki Gambaryan said her husband had gone to Nigeria earlier in the year and said the meetings became "hostile." Binance CEO Richard Teng said the exchange's employees met with Nigerian officials and said their lawyer was approached by someone demanding a "significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away." Teng said the team grew concerned about their safety and immediately left the country, according to a May blog post. Later meetings were again scheduled for late February, but both Tigran Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were given assurances that they would be safe, Teng added, but they were later detained. 

The U.S. government is her only hope to get her husband back, Yuki Gambaryan said. 

"I believe they have the ability, power and leverages to resolve these kinds of issues, so that gives me slight hope, but I've got to say — it's getting harder and harder to stay hopeful," she said on the podcast. 

H.Res. 1348

Work is underway in the U.S. House to get Tigran Gambaryan released. Last week, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution demanding the Nigerian to release Tigran Gambaryan and declare that he is being wrongfully detained.

The legislative measure, H.Res. 1348, introduced by Republican Reps. Rich McCormick and French Hill passed in July with a voice vote. The resolution demands the Nigerian government to provide him "unrestricted medical care" and also requests the U.S. State Department to "use all available assets, all means, to secure his release," McCormick said during a hearing on Tuesday.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, top Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the U.S. government has communicated with the Nigerian government to release Gambaryan and said he was disappointed the country had not responded.

"I know that the State Department is fully engaged in Mr. Gambaryan's case and they are weighing the facts according to their process," Meeks said in support of the resolution last week. "But regardless of how that process plays out, we must continue to press the Nigerian government."

The resolution will next be brought to the full U.S. House floor when Congress is back in session, which will be after the election. 

Their family

On Fanusie's podcast, Yuki Gambaryan said she recalled her husband messaging her when he got to Nigeria's capital, Abuja, in late February.  He told her he checked into his hotel and that he was wearing the T-shirt she gave him for Valentine's Day and said he would keep her posted. Yuki Gambaryan said she had not heard from him for 24 hours and later got a call from the U.S. Embassy in Abuja saying that he had been detained. 

One of her children keeps asking about their father, Yuki Gambaryan said on the podcast.

"It's getting harder and harder to keep things from my 10-year-old because she keeps coming to me asking questions such as why is dad still there? What's happening?" she said. 

Yuki Gambaryan said she tells her that the company he works for is in legal trouble, which he is helping to resolve, but said her daughter comes back with more questions.

"I honestly don't know how to answer those questions," Yuki Gambaryan said. 

They also have a five-year-old, who Yuki Gambaryan says is "pretty much oblivious" but says continually that he misses his father. She said she took her son to the park recently, where he saw an airplane in the sky, and asked if his father was on the plane.

"It was heartbreaking," Yuki Gambaryan said.