“Binance executives remain detained in Nigeria despite company’s exit

Two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla are still being held in a government facility in Abuja, even though Binance announced last week that it was leaving Nigeria.

The two executives’ two-week jail term has been extended because, according to a report published in Wired, Nigerian officials are still holding them without their passports.

Currently leading Binance’s criminal investigation team is Tigran Gambaryan, a former US federal agent with a concentration on cryptocurrencies.

The two arrived in Nigeria on February 25 in response to a request from the authorities there to discuss Binance’s continuing legal battle over the company’s purportedly illegal activities in the nation.

The families of the jailed Binance executives claim that they have not been informed by Nigerian prosecutors about whether the two are being investigated for crimes.

“There’s no definite answer for anything: how he’s doing, what’s going to happen to him, when he’s coming back,” Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki Gambaryan, reportedly said.

A spokesperson for Binance confirmed to CoinTelegraph that Gambaryan and Anjarwalla are still detained in Nigeria as of March 12, stating.

“While it is inappropriate for us to comment on the substance of the claims at this time, we can say that we are working collaboratively with Nigerian authorities to bring Nadeem and Tigran back home safely to their families.”

The executives who are being held are experts, according to the Binance reps, and they are optimistic that the situation will be resolved quickly.

A U.S. State Department official paid a visit to Gambaryan, an American citizen, while a UK foreign office person visited Anjarwalla, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Kenya, during their two weeks of detention by the Nigerian authorities.

The presence of Nigerian guards at both sessions prevented the Binance executives from having private conversations with their guests.

The officials of Binance were apprehended prior to Binance announcing its withdrawal from Nigeria on March 5.

Authorities in Nigeria have already charged Binance with facilitating the illegal movement of money and depreciating the naira, the country’s official currency.

Telecom companies were forced to impose access restrictions on Binance and other cryptocurrency exchanges by Nigerian authorities.

This motivated the executives from Binance to travel to Nigeria in order to resolve the matter.

Binance made their withdrawal from Nigeria known on March 5.

On March 8th, it stopped accepting Naira withdrawals, and on March 7th, it eliminated all trading pairs that used the Naira. Peer-to-peer trading with Naira was also disabled on the platform.

Because of claims that Binance had influenced its currency crisis, Nigerian authorities fined the company $10 billion.