Claim of $150M bribe made by Binance executive against Nigerian government officials affirmed again
In recent months, there have been allegations of bribery involving Binance, the global cryptocurrency exchange, and Nigerian officials. However, it's important to clarify that as of mid-2025, no publicly confirmed bribery allegations specifically involving Binance in Nigeria, linked to Tigran Gambaryan and Wired, have been documented.
Instead, investigations and legal actions primarily focus on crypto fraud and money laundering schemes where Binance accounts were used by Nigerian-linked fraud rings.
Key developments include:
- The U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations seized over $7 million in cryptocurrency linked to Nigerian and Russian fraudsters allegedly laundering proceeds from a $97 million international investment fraud scheme involving fake oil and gas storage investments. Binance was one of the exchanges involved in hosting accounts used for laundering.
- Maltese courts ordered the confiscation of a Binance account tied to suspected fraud originating from a Nigerian IP address.
- Tigran Gambaryan, Binance's head of financial crime, provided details about these events in an interview with Wired, stating that a demand for a bribe was made as a way to 'make the problems go away,' and the payment was to be made in cryptocurrency directly into the wallets of Nigerian officials.
- The Binance delegation in Nigeria at the time refused the bribe and fled the country the next day.
- An inter-agency investigation into Binance was confirmed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Nigeria shortly after news spread that two Binance bigwigs had been detained in the country.
It's worth noting that no publicly detailed evidence or statements attributed to Tigran Gambaryan or investigative reporting by Wired about bribery allegations against Binance in Nigeria have appeared in the available information up to August 2025.
In response to the bribery allegations, Mohammed Idris, Nigerian minister of information and national orientation, made a statement, dismissing the claims as "outrageous" and "defamatory."
Binance's Nigerian users were abruptly blocked from accessing the platform in February, and the company disabled its peer-to-peer trading platform in Nigeria and discontinued all trading pairs involving Nigeria's local currency, the naira, a few days later.
In a twist of events, Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance's regional manager for East Africa, engineered an escape in March, while Tigran Gambaryan remained in custody. Tigran Gambaryan was eventually released from the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja and transported to the United States in October, following diplomatic meetings and on account of his failing health.
While Binance has been implicated as a platform used allegedly for laundering funds in Nigerian-related frauds, no verified bribery allegations, supported by evidence from Tigran Gambaryan or Wired, are publicly documented as of this date. It's crucial to continue monitoring developments in this ongoing story.
- Despite the bribery allegations, Binance's Nigerian users were blocked from accessing the platform in February, and the company disabled its peer-to-peer trading platform in Nigeria.
- In the case of the bribery allegations, Tigran Gambaryan, Binance's head of financial crime, stated that a demand for a bribe was made, to be paid in cryptocurrency, directly into the wallets of Nigerian officials.
- The investigations and legal actions regarding Binance in Nigeria primarily focus on crypto fraud and money laundering schemes, with Binance being one of the exchanges involved in hosting accounts used for laundering, as reported in general-news outlets like Wired.
- In the inter-agency investigation into Binance confirmed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in Nigeria, no publicly detailed evidence or statements attributed to Tigran Gambaryan or investigative reporting by Wired about bribery allegations against Binance in Nigeria have been documented, as of August 2025.
