7th May, 2024
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance Richard Teng, has expressed concern over continued detention of one of its mid-level employees Tigran Gambaryan by the Nigerian government.
Teng said he is dismayed by the fact that a completely innocent employee remains detained for spurious reasons.
He said over the past two and a half years, Binance had worked hard to restructure its organization and personnel and upgrade its systems.
Teng said the organisation has new leadership in place with deep compliance experience and impressive backgrounds ranging from top traditional financial institutions and leading tech companies, to law enforcement and major corporate entities.
He stated that the company has continued to do anything and everything it could to support Tigran, saying this support is unwavering.
“Tigran did not go to Nigeria as a “decision-maker,” nor a “negotiator.” He was merely acting as a functional expert in financial crime and capacity building in policy discussions,” he said.
According to him, Binance believes it’s an easy solution to let Tigran go home to his family and then Binance will work through the same process that they have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past.
“We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on resolving potential historic tax liabilities.
“It remains unclear to me as to why this is not a solution to which the Nigerian government officials are willing to agree. The Nigerian government has extraordinary power to determine the future of Binance and the broader crypto industry within its borders.
“At the end of the day, Binance wants to have a future where we work alongside the Nigerian government to be part of building a strong economy for the Nigerian people. But this crisis must come to a resolution quickly, and Tigran must be allowed to go home if we’re going to move forward,” Teng stated.
He said to invite a company’s mid-level employees for collaborative policy meetings, only to detain them, has set a dangerous new precedent for all companies worldwide.
Teng added, “Binance remains committed to embracing the opportunity that lies with taking an innovative approach to using digital assets and platforms but we also must build a future where we are seen, as we see ourselves, as good actors in the international community.”