Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan has been denied bail “despite him meeting all the requirements for bail to be granted on medical grounds,” a family spokesperson told Decrypt.
Gambaryan has “suffered countless health scares and is now at a point where he is in so much physical pain from a herniated disc in his back that he can no longer walk without assistance,” the spokesperson said.
Reports about the executive’s failing health have been public for months now. In July, Nigerian officials claimed that he was “fine” a few weeks before a report from his wife countered by saying he was in “shockingly bad” condition and in need of specialized, high-risk surgery.
Gambaryan’s detention began in February after he and another executive flew in to negotiate with the nation’s authorities regarding a ban on several crypto trading websites, including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Gambaryan, who oversees the company’s financial crime compliance, was initially detained with fellow executive Nadeem Anjarwalla. They’d been asked to meet with the country’s Congress in response to allegations from the Empowerment for Unemployed Youths and Niger Delta Youths Council, which included terrorist financing, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were initially charged with tax evasion and money laundering, but the tax evasion charge was later dropped.
In late March, Anjarwalla managed to escape custody and after he asked permission to visit a local mosque for prayers under guard. Per reports in local media, he is believed to have used a concealed passport to flee the country.
“It is completely unjust to deny someone in Tigran’s condition the opportunity to seek appropriate medical help and I just pray that when he is finally released that the damage he is suffering is not permanent,” Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, said through her family’s spokesperson. “I am exhausted and deeply disappointed, but I will continue fighting for my husband’s rightful freedom.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) has been pushing for the U.S. to intervene on Gambaryan’s behalf.
“Some [politicians] are not paying attention because there’s a lot of things going on this election cycle. People are distracted. It’s easy to ignore one person or one family,” McCormick told Decrypt last week.
“But also crypto is something that’s very, very misunderstood still,” he added. “There’s been some laziness, quite frankly, looking into the details of the case.”
