Binance employee detained in Nigeria seeks bail on health grounds

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) – Binance Chief Executive Tigran Gambaryan, detained in Nigeria since February, on Monday filed a fresh application for bail on medical grounds, but lawyers for Nigeria’s economic crimes agency opposed the application.

Binance and Gambaryan, a US citizen, as well as the exchange’s British-Kenyan regional director for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been charged with money laundering of more than $35 million.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is also facing separate tax evasion accusations.

Lawyer Mark Mordi told the High Court in the capital Abuja that he had filed a fresh bail application for Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crimes compliance, “as his health continued to deteriorate while in prison.”

In May, a court rejected Gambaryan’s first application for bail.

Gambaryan says he suffers from a herniated disc that causes neck and back pain, and also suffers bouts of malaria and pneumonia.

He appeared in court on crutches and told the judge that prison authorities had denied him a wheelchair.

However, a lawyer for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which is investigating the money laundering case, argued that Gambaryan was not in poor health as he had been suffering from a herniated disc for more than a decade.

The case will continue on Wednesday.

(Text by MacDonald Dzirutwy, editing by William Maclean)