A hearing on the bail application of Binance Holdings Ltd. and Tigran Gambaryan, the head of Binance’s Financial Crime Compliance department, was adjourned by a judge in Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja on April 23. The hearing is set to resume on May 17 when a decision regarding the bail is anticipated.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a press release stating that it is prosecuting Gambaryan and Binance Holdings along with Nadeem Anjarwalla, who is currently at large. The EFCC has charged them with alleged tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering. They stand accused of laundering $34.4 million.
According to the same press release, Ekele Iheanacho, the prosecution’s counsel, responded to the bail application—comprising a 17-paragraph affidavit—filed on April 4 by Mark Mordi, the defense counsel.
Mordi presented Gambaryan's bail application and described his client's ongoing detention as "purely a state-sanctioned hostage taking." He argued that the EFCC was using his client as leverage to extract information from his employer, according to DL News.
Iheanacho countered the bail application in his argument as per the press release. He claimed that the defendant posed a flight risk as he attempted to obtain a new passport. However, Mordi dismissed this claim by pointing out that there was no certainty about whether or not the defendant possesses an Armenian passport. "Moreover, there is no Armenian Embassy in Nigeria that issues or prints passports," Mordi said in response.
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