Gambaryan Exposes Top Secret, Says CBN Lied About $26bn Leaving Nigeria Through Binance
Binance’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Tigran Gambaryan, has refuted claims made by the Central Bank of Nigeria regarding the alleged outflow of $26 billion from the country through the crypto exchange platform.
Gambaryan, who was arrested in February 2024 on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, spent eight months at the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja. The charges were dropped and left Nigeria in October 2024, following concerns about his deteriorating health and diplomatic considerations.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Gambaryan stated that the $26bn figure quoted by the CBN was misleading, emphasising that it represented a cumulative trade volume, not actual funds leaving Nigeria.
“The $26bn figure they kept pushing publicly as some mystery money escaping Nigeria is complete “bullshit.” This information was provided in response to their request and was simply cumulative trade data for Nigerians on the platform,” he stated.
“This money didn’t leave Nigeria—it was just people buying and selling crypto. For example, if you trade $100 a hundred times, that’s $10,000 in trade volume, but in reality, you only used $100. Again, just another example of them lying to cover up their “bullshit” investigation.”
In February 2024, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso claimed during a press briefing after the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting that Binance Nigeria had been involved in suspicious financial flows amounting to $26bn in transactions from unidentified sources.
“We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows, going through a number of these entities and suspicious flows. In the case of Binance, in the last year, $26bn has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify,” Cardoso said at the time.
The Binance executive further criticised Nigerian authorities for blaming Binance for broader economic problems, including the devaluation of the naira.
“They all knew that the naira’s devaluation was a direct result of Tinubu’s monetary policy, which depegged the naira from the dollar. I’m not saying this policy decision was wrong, but everyone understood that removing government intervention would lead to extreme devaluation. Instead of acknowledging this, they used Binance as a scapegoat,” Gambaryan stated.
Binance exited the Nigerian market in March 2024, following significant regulatory scrutiny and accusations. The CBN had expressed concerns about crypto exchanges handling illicit transactions, and there were calls for a ban on Binance and other platforms.
Gambaryan was arrested in Nigeria alongside his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan dual national. Both were detained after arriving in Nigeria for meetings with government officials regarding Binance’s operations.
