As you may be aware, one of our beloved colleagues, Tigran Gambaryan, continues to be held by the government in Nigeria for more than 70 days. There has been much public commentary on this episode, and I wanted to take this opportunity to provide the facts so that the global community’s perception may not be distorted unfairly. I also feel that it’s time to speak out about this issue on behalf of the global business community. 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. 
I want to start by sharing a bit about Tigran, a person I’ve gotten to know well, and admire deeply, since I joined Binance. The greatest irony and most unfortunate fact is that a highly valued global financial crime fighter, who is professionally recognized by his peers in both the private and public sectors, has been detained in Nigeria for more than two months for spurious reasons. 

Tigran has devoted his professional life to fighting financial crimes. Tigran’s decade as a federal cop was documented in a book called, Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency, and we put out this blog a few weeks ago to share more about his illustrious career fighting crime.  
He joined Binance after his time working for the U.S. IRS as a Special Agent to continue the work he started. He recognized that he could do even more good working for the largest company in this nascent industry to keep out bad actors and uphold market integrity.  Anyone who has left public service for a private organization can tell you that sometimes you can make an even greater positive impact working for a private company that has an extraordinary scale. 
Given this background, Tigran was hired in 2021 to help Binance develop and build stronger compliance controls, specific to law enforcement cooperation and stopping financial crime. As the head of Binance’s Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team, he has been a strong advocate for Binance to develop policies and build compliance capabilities that set new industry standards. In 2022 and 2023, Tigran’s Financial Crime Compliance team assisted global law enforcement in freezing and seizing more than $2.2B worth of assets, including more than $285M in cooperation with United States agencies like the FBI, DOJ, DEA, and others.
Finally, it is important to note that 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. 
Background of the Nigeria Situation 
I think it’s important to go back a couple of years to help provide a clearer picture of our activities in Nigeria. In fact, this story started nearly two years ago.
2022-2023
In May 2022, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published regulations for digital assets, bringing cryptocurrency under its purview. The regulations required crypto exchanges operating in Nigeria to obtain a permit from the SEC and comply with certain requirements. However, the regulations failed to articulate some of the key licensing requirements (e.g. application process, licensing fees, etc.), making it practically impossible to apply for a license. 
Binance proactively reached out to the SEC on several occasions to seek practical guidance on the licensing process and offer to engage with the Nigerian authorities on a consultative basis. 
For example, in a letter dated 22 June 2022, Binance stated that it ”would welcome and be grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the SEC and other industry players in the blockchain coalition over the coming days to provide further clarity on the application of the new rules, particularly around the interaction of these rules vis-à-vis the position taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the fee structure for licensing, and the impact of the registration on the facilitation of bank accounts in the region.” 
However, Binance never received any response from the SEC. To our knowledge, no Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) has been licensed under the new regulations to this date. 
Almost a year later, on 9 June 2023, the SEC published a circular on its website to warn the Nigerian public against the activities of the Binance exchange and direct Binance to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors. The circular stated: “Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal… By this circular, Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever.”
The reference in the circular to ‘Binance Nigeria Limited’ was incorrect. Binance Nigeria Limited is not affiliated with Binance and was registered by third parties in violation of the Binance trademark and for arbitrage purposes if Binance wished to establish a local presence in Nigeria. However, it was clear that the SEC’s intention was to target the Binance exchange. 
Recognizing that the intent was to serve this notice on the authentic Binance exchange, Binance immediately suspended solicitation activities in Nigeria, including paid ads, SEO, online and offline events, as well as all targeted communications to users. Those restrictions are still in place to date.
In the letter we sent the SEC at that time, we reiterated that Binance was “fully committed to cooperating with the Commission and complying with the relevant regulations” and requested a meeting with the SEC (noting that a previous meeting had been requested by Binance but that no response had been received from the SEC). 
Again, the SEC did not respond. We’ve continued to engage constructively with the SEC by providing commentary on their amended regulations as recently as March 29, 2024. 
In August 2023, we decided to engage through Nigeria’s digital assets industry. We began supporting the Digital Currency Coalition (DCC), an industry association comprising leading local and foreign digital asset service providers in Nigeria, promoting regulatory engagement and lobbying for the introduction of crypto regulations. 
In November 2023, we did what we do with law enforcement organizations all over the world: Binance conducted law enforcement training for the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Not only have these efforts helped uplevel cryptocurrency-related crime-fighting efforts around the world but they serve as a critical relationship-building tool for Tigran’s team to work more closely with law enforcement.
In early December 2023, Binance received a letter from the Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Crimes (HCFC) requesting that we appear at a public investigative hearing in less than two weeks. 
2024
Ultimately, through informal channels, we managed to agree with the Committee that the hearing should be rescheduled to 10 January 2024, to provide a realistic timeline to prepare and send a delegation of Binance employees with expertise on the issues that were important to discuss. 
Tigran Gambaryan and several other members of our team traveled to Nigeria to participate in this and other meetings. On January 5, Binance employees met with the NFIU to discuss information sharing as well as continued capacity building. The agreed next step was for the FIU to share a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting out proposed terms and conditions for the sharing of anti-money laundering (AML)-related information.
On January 8, Binance employees had a face-to-face meeting with three members of the HCFC and a clerk in Abuja at the House of Representatives building for a scheduled pre-hearing engagement in private. The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Peter Akpanke, the Honourable Philip Agbese, and the Honourable Peter Aniekwe, as well as a clerk. 
During the conversation, the Committee highlighted the important nature of the issues at hand and the lengths to which they were prepared to go to summon Binance, including issuing arrest warrants against our team and CEO and preventing our team from leaving the country. While concerning, it was understood that the HCFC does not in fact have the power to issue arrest warrants. 
The Committee confirmed that the public hearing would proceed on the 10th of January and that Binance would be afforded an opportunity to respond to any allegations publicly in the presence of the petitioners, press, and over 30 agencies. 
Despite multiple requests, Binance had still not received details of the allegations, and our employees, therefore, inquired if there was an opportunity to submit our responses in writing and in the absence of a public hearing. There were a number of reasons for that, including the sensitivity of the information and getting the opportunity to see the allegations in full and prepare a thorough substantive response. The meeting ended with the Chair confirming they would consider the matter and revert through Binance's local counsel.
However, as our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations. Later that day, our local counsel — representing us at that time — was summoned by the Committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the Committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us. Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning. Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed. We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer, and clarified that we would engage in settlement negotiations on the following conditions:
Binance needs to see the relevant petition and/or the details of all allegations.Any settlement must be official, recorded in writing, and signed by all relevant parties.Any settlement must encompass all relevant agencies and be in full and final settlement of all allegations, including any potential historic tax liabilities, if applicable, with guarantees.While the exact terms of any settlement may have to remain private, there would have to be some public acknowledgment that a resolution has been reached.There should be no public hearing before the Committee.Our contractors and employees are not to be intimidated, harassed, or detained.
Our counsel relayed Binance’s conditions, to which initially objection was taken. However, we were informed by our counsel that the Committee eventually agreed to the above.
Soon after returning from the trip, the NFIU shared the draft MoU, which scopes out Binance’s undertaking to voluntarily file SARs/STRs, provide training to Nigerian and other regional law enforcement agencies, and for both parties to cooperate with each other. We saw this as a positive development in the effort to cooperate on making crypto safer and free of criminal activity. 
On February 5, a Binance advisor with deep local connections advised a meeting with the director of the Office of National Security Advisor (ONSA) who would become the central gateway for Binance to have its presence in Nigeria. Again, we saw this as a positive development because rather than dealing with multiple agencies/departments, we would be able to focus communications through one very senior and respected pillar of Nigeria’s law enforcement community. 
In early February, our team was communicating with ONSA and EFCC regarding opportunities for a meeting. In one of these emails, we explained the “pivotal role (we play) in global law enforcement efforts. We engage in partnerships with law enforcement agencies worldwide, undertaking joint investigations and offering support wherever necessary. Notably, we have established a strong and productive relationship with our counterparts in Nigeria, including the EFCC.” The meeting agenda proposed by Binance included the following items:
Introduction to Binance and our global operations and compliance program.Binance’s current cooperation with the EFCC and FIU.Overview of the engagement with the SEC, measures taken by Binance in good faith to respect the SEC's directives and ONSA’s assistance with a way forward.A petition before the HCFC and ONSA’s recommendations on engagement.Strategy for enhancing our engagement and strengthening the relationship with ONSA. 
A meeting was scheduled for February 26, 2024, at 2pm at ONSA’s offices in Abuja, Nigeria. It was confirmed that the following government representatives would be in attendance: the National Security Advisor; the Chief Executive of the SEC; and, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 
Despite the clear risks, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla (Head of Binance Africa) received multiple assurances that they would be granted safe passage for their meetings. 
Concerns over P2P NGN prices
At around this time, the naira (NGN), the Nigerian currency, was amid a steep decline, amounting to what some watchers referred to as the worst financial crisis in a generation.  While many crypto platforms operate in Nigeria — and continue to do so to this day — Binance was the leading crypto platform operating in Nigeria at the time, and Nigerian traders were using the P2P product on the Binance platform to protect themselves against the currency decline. We began hearing concerns that the P2P NGN prices from merchant advertisements had influenced the country’s foreign exchange rate.
Binance’s P2P team engaged with the local community. What we learned was that due to the lack of official reference FX prices in Nigeria, people in Nigeria, including crypto and non-crypto players, were using the price averages of the P2P advertisements as a source of FX rate reference. 
While the P2P market advertisement price (quotation price) is real-time and moves along with the market, it is not always a reflection of the actual traded price. Binance has no role in setting the P2P prices: in fact, P2P transactions are driven by individuals seeking to engage in direct buying and selling of particular crypto-to-crypto or fiat-to-crypto pairs. It's essentially a marketplace for crypto. 
The P2P product does not have the same level of usage or the same depth of market and liquidity as the centralized exchange. Due to lower liquidity and higher volatility, people may see quotation spikes in the P2P market that do not necessarily represent real-world asset pricing, and quotations do not even lead to a trade necessarily. Part of the local community in Nigeria viewed those spikes as potential price manipulation, and given the wide usage of the P2P advertisement prices by merchants as FX rate reference, some suggested that Binance was a factor in the country’s volatile FX rate and currency depreciations.
The reality, of course, is that contributing factors of FX rates are complex and largely driven by macroeconomic policies. Here are a couple of helpful links on that topic:
Cato Institute: Nigeria’s Government Is Blaming Binance for Its Own MismanagementApplied Economics Professor Hanke: Nigerian Government's Crypto Claims Are 'Misguided and Incorrect'
At the same time, our P2P team continued to work on several initiatives including removing abnormally priced ads, applying restrictions to relevant users, and separate controls for buy/sell limits. There were also intentions to add a last-traded price feed so quotation spikes would no longer be viewed as market prices. Below are a couple of blogs we put out at the time to make it clear that we are dedicated to providing a market-driven, fraud-free, and manipulation-free platform for users. The fact remains: we take our responsibility to protect users very seriously. To reinforce the point, we made it clear that if users are behaving in a malicious or manipulative way, they will be removed from the platform.
February 20, 2024 blog: Binance’s commitment to P2P users in Nigeria  February 21, 2024 blog: Securing Trust: Binance Affirms User Funds and Operational Integrity Amid Market Dynamics in Nigeria
The February 26 meetings
On February 26, Tigran and Nadeem traveled to Nigeria and were present for the meetings they had scheduled and, as stated above, received multiple assurances for their safety. In their first meeting, they met with leaders from ONSA, the office of the President, the Central Bank, NFIU, EFCC, and the SEC.
The tone of the meeting was neutral — neither friendly nor hostile — and it seemed that overall progress was being made during the two hours or so that the meeting lasted.
One of the EFCC leaders, with whom Tigran had built a relationship over the last several months, took them aside and told them that everything was progressing well and that Tigran and Nadeem had no need to worry. The Binance employees were told that a further meeting would take place shortly after, this time involving the most senior leaders from ONSA, CBN, SEC, and the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. 
After waiting more than two hours, the Binance employees were invited back into a meeting room albeit with different attendees than the ones announced — specifically, there were four members of the EFCC. 
The leader of the group took on a hostile approach. He said that the issues involving Binance were of national security and made the following demands:
Delist naira from the Binance platform (this was the first time this request was explicitly made by Nigerian authorities to Binance).Provide granular-level detail on all Nigerian users.Provide financial/tax compliance information.
They further explained that, until such time as Binance would fulfill these requests, Tigran and Nadeem would be their “guests” and be moved for “security reasons” to a house in a high-security compound. Additionally, they requested that Tigran and Nadeem hand over their passports. 
Following the meeting, Tigran and Nadeem were escorted to their hotel, asked to pack their belongings, and moved to the secure compound, which was controlled by ONSA. Their mobile phones were confiscated, and it was made clear to them that they were not free to leave. Both Nadeem and Tigran had no control over when and with whom they spoke.
From this point on, Tigran (a US citizen) and Nadeem (a British-Kenyan citizen) were under detention. Both the UK High Commission and the US Embassy were alerted in the overnight hours of the detention of Tigran and Nadeem.
The next day, Binance's legal counsel sent an email to the leaders of ONSA asking them to “urgently clarify the legal basis for the detention of [its] employees” and noting that their respective nation's embassies (U.S. for Tigran and UK for Nadeem) had been notified. Our note further stated: “We understand from our employees after conversations with you yesterday your main concern is the listing of the naira as a tradable asset on the Binance platform. This is the first time we have been made aware of this concern in relation to the listing of the naira on our platform.  We are able to delist the naira from the Binance platform. However, we ask that you guarantee the immediate release of Tigran and Nadeem and that no restrictions will be placed on their movements, including their departure from Nigeria.”
The same day, ONSA responded by email, stating that Tigran and Nadeem were their “guests” and treated with “hospitality.” 
We also received confirmation that day that the U.S. and UK governments had been briefed on the situation and were following up closely.
The next 24 hours were marked by aggressive behavior towards Tigran and Nadeem where they were accused personally of holding responsibility for the state of the naira and the overall economy, and allegations of terrorist financing and money laundering. 
On February 28, we removed the naira pairing from our site and shut down the P2P product for Nigeria on the Binance platform. We advised ONSA of our actions in an email and requested that Tigran and Nadeem be immediately provided with “safe passage to the airport.”
No official response from ONSA was received that day. 
On this day, the same EFCC leader with whom Tigran had become close over the past few months broke down emotionally to Tigran. He apologized and said it was his wrongdoing as he had given Tigran and Nadeem his word that everything would be OK, and that the meeting was supposed to be a friendly one. 
Soon thereafter news of Tigran and Nadeem’s detention broke in global media. Nearly a month later, on March 23, we learned that Nadeem left unlawful detention. From that point on, things went from bad to worse for Tigran. 
Where Are We Today?
On April 25, during a bail hearing for Tigran Gambaryan, the EFCC’s prosecutor said to the court, “The 1st defendant [Binance] is operating virtually. The only thing we have to hold on to is this defendant [Tigran].”
The message from the Nigerian government is clear: we must detain an innocent, mid-level employee and a former U.S. federal agent, and place him in a dangerous prison in order to control Binance.
Since I assumed the role of CEO of Binance, I have made it a key commitment to work with global regulators and enforcement agencies to uphold the integrity of the global financial system. 
Over the past two and a half years, Binance has worked hard to restructure our organization and personnel and upgrade our systems. We have 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. 
Today, the Binance leadership team, including myself, report to a Board of Directors. The Board is responsible, as corporate steward, to safeguard the company’s interests as well as make key decisions to ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of the business. It is through this process that we have become a stronger, safer, and even more compliant and secure platform for our users. We have evolved dramatically as a business. 
This ordeal has been deeply distressing for Tigran, his family and friends, as well as the entire Binance community. As mentioned above, to remove any doubt about suggestions that we had played a role in the country’s currency crisis and as a good faith gesture, I made the difficult decision earlier this month to turn off our P2P product on the Binance platform for Nigeria and end the trading of all naira pairs on the spot exchange product on the Binance platform. Our hope when we took this drastic step was that our colleagues would be released and Binance could continue to work with the Nigerian government to resolve any further concerns. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. 
We continue to do anything and everything we can to support Tigran. This support is unwavering. 
Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria's law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past. We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. 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. 
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. 
I'd like to express my deepest gratitude for the many notes of support we have received from around the world in response to this crisis, and I hope that my next update is one where our employees are safe at home with their families.
~ Richard Teng, Binance CEO.

For another time, here’s another grand opportunity Binance introduces on its Launchpool for its users!

Binance Launchpool is a product on Binance through which users can farm new token rewards by staking BNB or FDUSD. It allows users to participate in the initial distribution of new tokens by providing liquidity. Launchpool allows users to farm new assets and receive token rewards by staking BNB and FDUSD freely.
Be excited to learn that Binance introduces the 52nd project on its Launchpool; this project is none other than OMNI Network! A layer 1 blockchain designed to integrate Ethereum’s rollup ecosystem into a single and unified system. Binance Launchpool users will be able to stake their BNB or FDUSD into separate pools to farm OMNI tokens over just 4 days, with farming starting from 13th April, 2024 exactly by 12am UTC.
Wondering why OMNI Network comes in? Here’s why:
Ethereum’s adoption of the rollup-centric roadmap has created isolated execution environments, dividing capital, users, and developers across rollup domains.
Addressing these issues, Omni was developed to provide Ethereum native interoperability in a secure, performant, and globally compatible manner.
Omni establishes a new precedent for secure interoperability by deriving its crypto-economic security from restaked ETH.
Building on its novel security framework, Omni features a custom network architecture that is capable of verifying cross-rollup messages with sub-second finality.
And now about the OMNI token farming on Binance Launchpool, the farming participants who stake BNB or FDUSD in any of the pools will be rewarded with free OMNI tokens before listing according to their staked asset value.
Binance will then list OMNI on 17th day of April, 2024, and open trading with OMNI/BTC, OMNI/USDT, OMNI/BNB, OMNI/FDUSD and OMNI/TRY trading pairs. The Seed Tag will be applied to OMNI.
Attention!
Note: that Binance will be the first platform to list the token mentioned herein, with trade starting on 17th April, 2024. Any claims to offer this token for sale before the stated timeline are false advertising. Please do your own research to ensure safety of your funds!
Ready to start now?
Here are the steps to getting started with farming free tokens on Binance Launchpool:
Step 1:
Open Binance  Launchpad page thereby using the search box at the top side of your Binance app homepage. Type the name ‘Launchpad, search for it, get it and go for it.

Step 2:
Start from here or simply navigate to the Launchpool Section.
Step 3:
Open The OMNI Network Farming option to proceed the proceeding procedure.
Step 4:
Depending on your asset availability, select the pool to stake your asset, either that of BNB or the other of FDUSD.
Step 5:
Proceed to stake your asset to start farming free OMNI tokens freely.
Remember, the OMNI Network token farming will only last for 4 days; starting from 13th April, 2024 to 16th April, 2024.
Need further information?
Read about the Farming Allocation and other Token Launchpool Details you must know on the Launchpool Page.
Enjoy your free farming on Binance Launchpool!
#BinanceLaunchpool

Do you wish to know the best and safest way to earn free crypto tokens of a new project before listing?
For another time, here’s another grand opportunity Binance introduces on its Launchpool for its users!

Binance Launchpool enables crypto holders to stake their assets to earn free new tokens, combining the principles of DeFi Yield farming with the security and convenience of a big exchange like Binance. Launchpool allows users to farm new assets and receive token rewards by staking BNB and other supported tokens freely.
Be excited to learn that Binance introduces the 51st project on its Launchpool; this project is none other than SAGA! A Layer 1 project to launch other projects at ease with maximum efficiency. Users will be able to stake their BNB and FDUSD into separate pools to farm SAGA tokens over just 4 days, with farming starting from 5th April, 2024 exactly by 12am UTC.
Project developers are at the heart of SAGA, and its approach to building is unique. wondering what that could be?
Coming to realise how developers happen to be the unsung heroes of web3, it’s understandable that they deserve far better platforms and support on their way to building their applications and chains. This is why Saga is for developers.
Many in the crypto community believe that sovereign chains communicating freely with one another is the future for crypto infrastructure, and that now is the right time to move in that direction.
However, most native crypto developers, not to mention web2 developers coming into web3, forgo being a part of this vision because they find the upfront investment and effort too high, only to see their projects constrained once they grow.
Saga makes this vision accessible.
Saga is a protocol for automatically provisioning application-specific blockchains in the multichain metaverse, or multiverse.

They are building this by rearchitecting developer and end-user interactions with blockchains.
Coming back to the SAGA token farming on Binance Launchpool, the farming participants who staked BNB or FDUSD in any of the pools will be rewarded with free SAGA tokens before listing according to their staked asset value.
Binance will then list SAGA at 2024-04-09 14:00 (UTC) and open trading with SAGA/BTC, SAGA/USDT, SAGA/BNB, SAGA/FDUSD and SAGA/TRY trading pairs. The Seed Tag will be applied to SAGA.
Attention!
Note that Binance will be the first platform to list the SAGA token mentioned herein, with trade starting on 9th day of April, 2024, exactly by 2pm UTC. Any claims to offer this token for sale before the stated timeline are false advertising. Please do your own research to ensure safety of your funds!

Ready to start now?
Here are the steps to getting started:

Step 1. Open Binance  Launchpad page.
Step 2. Navigate to Launchpool Section.
Step 3. Open The SAGA Farming option.
Step 4. Depending on your holding, select the pool to stake either that of BNB or FDUSD.
Step 5. Proceed to stake your asset to start farming free SAGA tokens.
Remember, the SAGA token farming will only last for 4 days; starting from 5th April, 2024 to 8th April, 2024.
Need further information?
Read about the Farming Allocation and other Token Launchpool Details you must know on the Launchpool Page.
Enjoy your free farming on Binance Launchpool!
#BinanceLaunchpool

Tigran Gambaryan, an American citizen, is known globally as someone fully dedicated to law enforcement. For a decade, he served as a U.S. Federal Agent investigating cases involving national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography, tax evasion, and bank secrecy act violations.

As part of the elite cyber investigations team in the U.S. Treasury Department’s IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) unit, Tigran led several multi-billion dollar investigations, including the Silk Road corruption investigations, BTC-e bitcoin exchange, and the Mt. Gox hack.
He also played a pivotal role in probing Alphabay, Welcome2Video, and the high-profile "VIP" Twitter hack, working alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the United States Secret Service.
Tigran later assumed the role of the IRS-CI representative at the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), focusing on national security and terrorism financing. 
Tigran is so well known as the world’s preeminent cyber crimes investigator that a book, Tracers in the Dark, was written about his efforts to bring down some of history’s most notorious cyber criminals. 
Given this background, Tigran was hired in 2021 to help Binance fix past compliance issues. As the head of Binance’s Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team, he has been a strong advocate for Binance to develop policies and build compliance capabilities that set new industry standards.
In 2022 and 2023, Tigran’s Financial Crime Compliance team assisted global law enforcement in freezing and seizing more than $2.2B worth of assets, including more than $285M in cooperation with United States Agencies like the FBI, DOJ, DEA, and others.
In the past several years, he, along with his FCC team, responded to more than 600 information requests coming from Nigerian law enforcement agencies or related to investigations pertinent to Nigeria.
The information provided helped tackle crimes ranging from scams and fraud to money laundering, blackmail, kidnapping, and extortion, leading to multiple asset freezes and seizures, totaling more than USD 400,000. 
Tigran’s team also provided multiple training sessions for Nigerian crime fighters on the role of exchanges in the digital-asset ecosystem. This included a three-hour online workshop for 70 Nigerian EFCC officials in mid-2023 and, late last year, two full-day sessions for EFCC officials in Abuja and Lagos, with more than 30 investigators attending each of them. 
Tigran is a strict law enforcement professional and is not part of Binance management. While he has left official service of the U.S. government, he has remained fully committed to the role of law enforcement officer ever since, operating as a global advocate for good governance and transparent regulatory financial practices. 
Binance respectfully requests that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making power in the company, is not held responsible while current discussions are ongoing between Binance and Nigerian government officials.
WHO IS TIGRAN?
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, and raised in California, Tigran is a husband, son, and most importantly, a remarkable father. He’s a former US Government official and globally recognized expert for his work in law enforcement.
Tigran is renowned worldwide for his dedication to cleaning up the crypto industry and collaborating with governments and stakeholders to combat financial crimes.
His efforts have brought down some of history’s most notorious cyber criminals, including drug dealers, human-traffickers, and money launderers.
Tigran's work in battling cyber crime and retrieving millions of dollars for the US government is so important that it was featured in a book called "Tracers in the Dark".
It highlights how Tigran was an integral part of the take down of the notorious Alphabay dark web market and investigating a corrupt DEA agent who stole millions in bitcoin.
He was hired by Binance to make crypto safer and fix past compliance issues. He even trained Nigeria's EFCC officers - the very same people who are now holding him - on how to fight cyber crime. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, Tigran and his team helped law enforcement globally seize more than $2.2bn worth of illicit funding.
It is deeply ironic that he is being charged with the crimes he spent his life fighting. My husband is an innocent man, a pawn in someone else’s game.
What has made this situation worse is that our government, the US government, has not made any progress to bring my husband home. In fact, as of 3rd April, representatives from the US embassy in Nigeria have not even visited him for over 12 days. 
WHAT HAPPENED?
Following a day of policy meetings, Tigran, and his colleague, were taken back to his hotel, told to pack their bags, and taken to a secure compound controlled by the Nigerian government.
Tigran’s passport was taken away and he has been held ever since. 
At that time, the authorities obtained a court order to hold him for 14 days while they carried out an “investigation”, however it was never explained what these investigations were even about, as Tigran knew he had not committed a crime. Despite this court order expiring - and not being extended by the Nigerian courts – Tigran was never released.
Two weeks after the original 14-day order expired and Tigran was still detained, the Nigerian government charged him with bogus, tax-related charges.
Ironically, Tigran is a former well-respected IRS agent who spent his government career fighting criminals who cheated the American government and recovered millions of dollars in stolen money from all over the world. 
Sadly, we all can see exactly what is happening, an innocent man is being used as a negotiating pawn by the Nigerian government.
WHY THIS PETITION MATTERS
On February 25, 2024, my husband Tigran Gambaryan arrived in Abuja, Nigeria at the invitation of the Nigerian government for policy meetings on behalf of his employer.
Tigran flew in from Suwanee, Georgia where our young family lives. He was only supposed to be there for 48 hours and traveled with just a small bag.
Now, multiple weeks later, the Nigerian authorities continue to refuse to allow him to leave the country as they work-up bogus charges, and the conditions of his detention have worsened significantly.
I am asking you to not only sign this petition but also share it with your friends and family calling on the US Government to do more to bring one of their own home.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
So far, no progress has been made in getting Tigran out of this nightmare. Tigran’s family and friends are pleading with the US Government to do more to have an innocent American citizen brought home.
According to the US State Department, America’s “partnership with Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and democracy, is built on shared interests and values, as well as strong people-to-people ties.
The United States and Nigeria enjoy a deep and enduring partnership that spans more than six decades.”
In fact, as the State Department points out, “The United States is proud to be one of the largest foreign investors in Nigeria with foreign direct investment totaling $5.6 billion in 2022.”
We are therefore asking the US Government to lean on those strong ties with the Nigerian government to bring an American who has dedicated his entire career to fighting crime and upholding the rule of law, back home to his family.

Please sign this petition and share it widely to #BRINGTIGRANHOME!

Dear Binancian,Binance will discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services as per the timeline below.Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services. This affects NGN services only, you can continue to make use of services and products for other available cryptocurrencies. - Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC). - Binance Auto-Invest will delist NGN after 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC).- Binance will remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay at 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC).- Binance Convert will delist NGN and all corresponding pairs at 2024-03-07 02:00 (UTC).- NGN Spot Trading pairs (i.e.,BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN) will be delisted at 2024-03-07 03:00 (UTC).- Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC).Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN  after 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC).Please note:- Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days. - The conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer. USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page. - If users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.We thank you for your support as we continue to build the crypto ecosystem in a way that promotes transparency and long-term, sustainable growth.🚨 Binance reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or cancel this announcement at any time and for any reasons without prior notice. Binance Team.