Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency change, not too long ago issued an announcement concerning Tigran Gambaryan, a key member of its Monetary Crime Compliance (FCC) group, as the corporate engages in discussions with Nigerian authorities officers. The assertion follows Nigerian authorities arresting two of its firm officers.
The assertion mentions that Gambaryan’s group has responded to lots of of data requests from Nigerian regulation enforcement companies or associated to investigations pertinent to the nation. This collaboration has resulted in asset freezes and seizures, focusing on a number of crimes. The group additionally purportedly offered coaching to native authorities:
Tigran’s group additionally offered a number of coaching periods for Nigerian crime fighters on the function of exchanges within the digital-asset ecosystem. This included a three-hour on-line workshop for 70 Nigerian [Economic and Financial Crimes Commission] EFCC officers in mid-2023 and, late final yr, two full-day periods for EFCC officers in Abuja and Lagos, with greater than 30 investigators attending every of them.
No decisional energy, no duty
Binance clarifies that Gambaryan, whereas holding a crucial function in compliance, is just not a part of the corporate’s administration and doesn’t possess decision-making energy:
Tigran is a strict regulation enforcement skilled and isn’t a part of Binance administration. […] Binance respectfully requests that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making energy within the firm, is just not held accountable whereas present discussions are ongoing between Binance and Nigerian authorities officers.
The assertion additionally focuses on Gambaryan’s in depth expertise in regulation enforcement and his purported efforts to help international authorities in combating monetary crimes. In line with the assertion, Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, has a decade-long historical past as a Federal Agent, investigating a variety of circumstances, together with these associated to nationwide safety, terrorism financing, identification theft, youngster pornography distribution, tax evasion, and financial institution secrecy act violations.
Throughout his time with the U.S. Treasury Division’s IRS Legal Investigations (IRS-CI) unit, he led a number of notable investigations and collaborated with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the US Secret Service on varied circumstances.
In 2021, Gambaryan joined Binance to move the change’s FCC group, with the objective of addressing previous compliance points and creating strong insurance policies and compliance capabilities. The assertion notes that between 2022 and 2023, Gambaryan’s group assisted international regulation enforcement in freezing and seizing a big quantity of belongings, together with $285M in cooperation with U.S. companies.
The announcement follows Binance discontinuing all its providers in Nigeria resulting from a authorized dispute.
