- Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against him and his company by the Nigerian EFCC
- Gambaryan had been sent to a Nigerian correctional center pending his trial
Binance’s executive detained in Nigeria, Tigran Gambaryan, has pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against him and Binance. Gambaryan appeared before a Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Monday following an adjournment of the case after last week’s sitting. He pled not guilty to the charges but will remain in a Nigerian Prison while awaiting trial.
Gambaryan Pleads Not Guilty To The EFCC’s Charges
Last Thursday, Gambaryan was arraigned before a High Court in Nigeria’s capital where his lawyer argued that he (Gambaryan) couldn’t represent the first defendant (Binance). According to his lawyer, Gambaryan was not an agent, a representative, or a director of Binance in Nigeria and should not be served charges on behalf of the first defendant.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, overruled the objection to stop the second defendant’s arraignment citing that Gambaryan’s affidavit revealed he visited Nigeria with his now escaped colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla primarily to meet with government officials as Binance’s representatives. Justice Nwite found him complicit in Binance’s alleged crimes as his affidavit also showed he joined the company in 2021.
The first count of the charge against Binance and its two executives alleged that the company “between January, 2023 and January 2024 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court carried on specialized business of other financial institution without valid license.” This offense, according to the prosecution, violated the “Banks and other Financial Institutions Act, 2020 and punishable under section 57(5) of the same Act.”
The prosecution also accused Binance of unlawfully negotiating foreign exchange rates in Nigeria via its virtual services platform despite “not being an authorized dealer in Nigeria`s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market” – an offense punishable under the country’s “foreign Exchange (Monitoring And Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.”
Gambaryan pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against Binance and its executives and will stand before the court for trial on May 5 as determined by Justice Nwite.
Court Remands Gambaryan In Prison Pending Trial
According to a local news outlet, Punch, Gambaryan has been remanded in a Nigerian Prison. Justice Nwite ordered Gambaryan to be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja while awaiting his trial scheduled for May 5.
Following Gambaryan’s plea and the prosecution’s application for a trial date, defense counsel Mark Modi prayed the court to grant his client bail considering he had spent over 40 days in unlawful detention. Mordi pleaded for Gambaryan to be held in the more comfortable EFCC detention center where he was kept after his arrest instead of a correctional facility.
The prosecuting counsel, however, insisted that the defendant’s detention was lawful and that he had to be detained in a correctional center after arraignment as per Nigerian law.
Justice Nwite would finally order Gambaryan’s remand in the Kuje Correctional Centre in Nigeria’s capital while setting April 18 for the hearing of bail applications and May 5 for his trial.