The two Binance employees detained in Nigeria have been identified as Tigran Gambaryan, Vice President of Global Intelligence and Investigations, and Nadim Anjarwalla, Director of the trading platform in West and East Africa. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The senior executives were invited by Nigerian authorities to discuss ongoing issues concerning Binance. According to the publication, they arrived in the country’s capital, Abuja, on February 25.
After the initial meeting, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were taken to hotels, instructed to pack their belongings, and moved to a “hotel” managed by Nigeria’s National Security Agency.
Since then, they have been forcibly held by Nigerian authorities.
Earlier, in an interview with BBC, presidential spokesperson Zakari Midjinyawa stated that the exchange’s employees are under investigation and “are being interrogated as part of a security agency investigation into currency market regulation issues.”
Media also reported that the passports of the Binance executives were confiscated.
In April, Nigerian authorities expressed concern over the impact of cryptocurrency exchanges on the country’s economy. Telecommunications companies were ordered by the government to block access to several platforms, including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
In early March, reports emerged that Nigerian authorities allegedly demanded $10 billion in compensation from Binance for manipulating the naira exchange rate. However, both the exchange and Nigerian presidential adviser Bayo Onanuga later denied this information.
The local House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes also demanded that Binance CEO Richard Teng appear before the agency to testify regarding alleged terrorism financing and money laundering.