Sixteen members of the United States House of Representatives have petitioned President Joe Biden to intervene in the case of Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive, who has been detained in Nigeria since late February.<\/p>\n
Gambaryan, alongside another top executive of the crypto trading firm, who is on the run, Nadeem Anjarwalla, is facing economic crimes-related charges before a Federal High Court in\u00a0Abuja.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The lawmakers claimed Gambaryan has been \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d and subjected to \u201cexcessive and harsh treatment\u201d by the Nigerian authorities.<\/p>\n The appeal was detailed in a letter published by Fox Business correspondent Eleanor Terrett, wherein the lawmakers urged Biden to transfer Gambaryan\u2019s case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, the office that coordinates U.S. efforts on overseas hostage-related matters.<\/p>\n The petitioners argued that Gambaryan qualifies as a \u201cU.S. citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government,\u201d emphasizing the urgent need for action due to concerns over his health and well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cOn behalf of Mr. Gambaryan, his family, and concerned Americans, we, the undersigned, urgently request and strongly encourage the transfer of his case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs,\u201d the Congress members wrote in their letter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>They continued, \u201cMr. Gambaryan\u2019s health and well-being are in danger, and we fear for his life. Immediate action is essential to ensure his safety and preserve his life. We must act swiftly before it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Gambaryan, Binance\u2019s chief of financial compliance, was detained after responding to the Nigerian government\u2019s request for discussions regarding the crypto giant\u2019s operations in the country. The lawmakers allege that the Nigerian government took him hostage and called on the U.S. government to secure his release. \u201cThe government of Nigeria took Mr. Gambaryan hostage,\u201d they stated.<\/p>\n The letter also highlighted Gambaryan\u2019s significant contributions as a former IRS agent, including his involvement in seizing $4.725 billion in illicit funds through major cyber investigations. They pointed out his critical role in leading some of the \u201cmost prolific cyber investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n This high-profile appeal follows continuous efforts by Gambaryan\u2019s family to seek government assistance. His legal team has previously reported to the Federal High Court that he is \u201cvery ill\u201d and in need of urgent medical care. Multiple outlets reported that Gambaryan collapsed during a recent court hearing, leading Justice Emeka Nwite to order his transfer to a hospital. However, his family has stated that he has not yet been moved and is suspected of suffering from malaria and a severe throat infection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sixteen members of the United States House of Representatives have petitioned President Joe Biden to intervene in the case of Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive, who has been detained in Nigeria since late February. Gambaryan, alongside another top executive of the crypto trading firm, who is on the run, Nadeem Anjarwalla, is facing economic crimes-related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":33860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-33859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","tag-binance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33874,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33859\/revisions\/33874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}