font size
The Nigerian government on Wednesday dropped money laundering charges against Tigran Gambariyan, an executive at crypto firm Binance, state news agencies reported.
The head of financial crimes compliance for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, a US citizen, has been detained since February on suspicion of laundering approximately $35 million with the company.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, he and Binance denied the charges, but a lawyer for government anti-graft authorities said the charges were dropped due to Gambarian’s deteriorating health.
Authorities in Africa’s major economies have imposed restrictions on virtual currency exchanges as part of an attempt to stem the decline in the value of their currency, the naira.
In March, Binance announced that it would cease operations in the cryptocurrency as the Nigerian government increased scrutiny of the cryptocurrency business.
Other charges against Binance, which the company denies, are still being pursued in court, and the trial has been postponed until next month.
Binance and anti-corruption group EFCC did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
Binance was founded in 2017, cornering much of the crypto trading market and turning founder Changpeng Chao, who resigned late last year, into a billionaire.
The Canadian was sentenced to four months in prison in the United States in April after pleading guilty to money laundering charges in a high-profile cryptocurrency case.
An investigation by two Treasury Department agencies found that Binance failed to prevent transactions by groups such as the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Hamas militants.
lcm/ju/giv
