Binance Chief Executive Officer,  Richard Teng breaks silence on health of employee, Tigran Gambaryan  detained in Nigeria

Admin I Friday, August 30, 2024

 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The Chief Executive Officer of virtual trading platform, Binance, Mr. Richard Teng has spoken on the continued detention of his employee, Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria  for alleged money laundering and systematic depreciation of the Naira.

He speaks:  

We are now at the six month mark of Tigran’s unjust detention. Tigran’s physical and mental conditions have deteriorated rapidly with his situation being more dire than ever.

He is in severe pain and unable to walk due to a herniated disc. Despite his conditions, the Nigerian government has refused adequate medical care, including basic needs such as providing access to a wheelchair.

Furthermore, they are refusing to provide access to his legal counsel, despite a trial commencing on 2 September, which we have been informed is unconstitutional in Nigeria. A court has demanded the government release Tigran’s medical records but after several months, they have still not complied. This week Tigran was denied access to his US consulate representative. These actions are inexplicable.

I am deeply concerned about the long-term, potentially irreversible physical and mental impact this horrific episode is having on Tigran and I appeal once again for the Nigerian government to allow him to go home to his family on humanitarian grounds so that he can seek the appropriate medical treatment in the US, recover and get back to the healthy, active life he previously had.

Baseless Allegations Should Not be Used to Continue to Hold Tigran

A reason that the Nigerian government has used for continuing to hold Tigran is because “(Binance) is operating virtually. The only thing we have to hold on to is this defendant (https://apo-opa.co/3yW0d1Q).”

This statement is far from the truth. There is no need to imprison an innocent employee to answer for any allegations against Binance. We have settled issues in countries around the world, including the US, Thailand, and most recently in Brazil (https://apo-opa.co/3MnjsEm) and India (https://apo-opa.co/3Xm3z7v), in a reasonable, collaborative and amicable manner with governments. All these were done without threat or harm inflicted to any of our employees. This is no good reason to hold an innocent employee to advance the discussion of outstanding issues.

Another claim made by the Nigerian government was that Binance was responsible for its currency decline. To everyone paying attention, this is not backed up by facts. Between 2021 and the end of 2022, the Naira traded between a relatively narrow range of USD1: 380 to USD1: 440.  We have been offering P2P services as a value-added service for our users wishing to get exposure to crypto during that period of time. The end of the Naira’s currency peg by the Government in June 2023 caused the biggest fall in Naira’s history according to experts (https://apo-opa.co/