One hundred and eight former U.S. federal agents and prosecutors have called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the U.S. State Department to secure the release of Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance employee and former U.S. government agent, who is being held on "false charges" by the Nigerian government. The group shared its statement in a June 6 letter addressed to Blinken.
According to the letter, Gambaryan worked with law enforcement agencies worldwide in his role at Binance, supporting their investigations. In January, Gambaryan traveled to Nigeria to discuss financial compliance. During that visit, Nigerian officials approached him and "suggested that a substantial payment would resolve alleged compliance concerns about Binance." He then left Nigeria due to safety concerns but returned in February at the invitation of government officials who assured him he would be safe. Instead, Gambaryan was arrested, his passport was confiscated, and he was detained for nearly a month before charges were filed against him. "He is completely innocent of these charges and, as a mid-tier employee at Binance, does not hold a role that makes him an appropriate stand-in for the company," according to the letter.
Gambaryan's health is now deteriorating, according to the letter. He collapsed in court on May 23 and is reportedly suffering from malaria. His "captivity is not only unjust but inhumane." Nigerian officials are interfering with Gambaryan's rights to speak with his family and legal counsel. The individuals who signed the letter called on Blinken to "leverage the full power of U.S. diplomacy to do the just thing by demanding and securing Tigran's immediate release back to his family and the country he has so honorably served." They said the U.S. government's efforts on this issue so far "have been wholly lacking."
Gambaryan's wife, Yuki, expressed her frustration that it has taken so long for members of the U.S. government to speak out on Gambaryan's behalf, DL News reported. "I am shocked at how long it took for us to get to this point," she said. "It feels like the U.S. government just got to the starting line now, which should have happened a long time ago." She noted that before working for Binance, Gambaryan spent ten years serving the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), traveling extensively and frequently working past midnight on high-profile investigations. "That’s the sacrifice he made for the country, for the government," Yuki said. "So I expected a lot more." She added that she has only been allowed to speak with Gambaryan twice since he was moved to Kuje Prison on March 22, each time for about two minutes.
The former federal agents and prosecutors who sent the letter said some of them worked alongside Gambaryan during his tenure with the IRS where they "saw his tireless devotion to the rule of law firsthand," according to their statement. The individuals who signed include Ken Bagchi, a former FBI Special Agent; Elizabeth Boison, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Criminal Division's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section; Katherine Dowling, an attorney for the U.S. Secret Service; Damali Taylor, a former federal prosecutor at the United States Attorney’s Office in Northern District of California; and Jennifer Vander Veer, a former FBI Special Agent.
For ten years, Gambaryan was a U.S. federal agent investigating cases related to "national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography," among other crimes, according to Binance's website post about him when he joined in 2021.
In 2022 and 2023 alone, his team assisted law enforcement agencies around the world in freezing and seizing more than $2.2 billion worth of assets.