Pressure campaign secures release of crypto executive from Nigerian prison
Crypto executive Tigran Gambaryan has been released from a Nigerian prison and is back in the U.S. following a high-profile pressure campaign by current and former government officials, members of Congress and state attorneys general who urged the Biden Administration to intervene on his behalf.
It’s unclear how much of a priority Gambaryan’s release was for the White House, but on Tuesday afternoon, President Biden held a call with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, expressing gratitude for his leadership in securing Gambaryan’s release. Last week, Nigerian officials dropped money laundering charges against the executive, allowing for his humanitarian release to seek medical treatment for worsening health issues.
Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and former IRS agent who now serves as Global Head of Financial Crime Compliance and Investigations for crypto exchange Binance, spent eight months in Nigeria’s Kuje prison after being arrested and charged with money laundering and tax evasion while traveling to the African nation on behalf of his employer.
The Nigerian government says it will proceed with the money laundering and tax evasion charges against Binance (which it denies) without Gambaryan.
Gambaryan has not given an official statement to the press, but in an exchange with FOX Business via direct messages on X, he said his top priority is reconnecting with his family—a wife and two young children—as well as dealing with health issues. While in prison, Gambaryan suffered from malaria, pneumonia and complications from a herniated disc, which left him in a wheelchair.
Earlier this month, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and seventeen other state Attorneys General, including New York AG Letitia James, signed a bipartisan letter to Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asking them to designate Gambaryan as a hostage pursuant to the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.
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The 2019 law is named after FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared while traveling to Iran as a private investigator in 2007. It’s designed to give designated hostages and their families' priority in U.S. government efforts to secure release.
"Tigran Gambaryan is being unlawfully held by the Nigerian government under potentially life-threatening circumstances. This is not a partisan issue, but one of pure humanitarian concern and fundamental patriotic duty," Reyes stated.
The AGs letter followed similar missives from a group of one hundred former federal agents and DOJ prosecutors, some of whom had worked with Gambaryan during his time in government, as well as sixteen members of Congress urging the Biden Administration to repatriate the Binance executive.
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In July, Republican House Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), representing Gambaryan from his home state of Georgia, introduced a bipartisan resolution alongside Rep. French Hill (R-AR) aimed at urging the Nigerian government to promptly release Gambaryan from prison. The bill, which garnered support from thirty-five Republicans and twelve Democrats, was co-drafted by former Florida Rep. Connie Mack IV, who also collaborated with the group of state attorneys general to lobby the Biden Administration for Gambaryan's release.
Mack, a four-term congressman from Florida's 14th district and the great-grandson of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, was approached by friends of Gambaryan’s to assist in his case due to Mack's prior experience lobbying for the return of an American citizen detained in Colombia in 2019.