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Tigran Gambaryan, the former Binance executive who has been jailed in Nigeria since March, has applied for bail on medical grounds.
Gambaryan and another Binance official have been held by Nigerian authorities who have accused Binance of contributing to the devaluation of Nigeria’s currency, and facilitating illegal financial flows.
Gambaryan’s health plea opposed by prosecutors
Reuters reported Monday that Gambaryan made the new bail application and found the country’s economic crime agency opposing it. Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance’s British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, are accused of laundering more than $35 million.
Binance itself faces separate accusations of tax evasion. Gambaryan’s lawyer told the Abuja High Court that his client’s new bail application was filed “because his health has continued to deteriorate while in prison custody.”
Gambaryan also sought bail in May; that appeal was denied. He says he has a herniated disc causing him neck and back pain, and also claims to have suffered through bouts with malaria and pneumonia.
Gambaryan’s previous court appearances have seen him participate in crutches and complaining to a judge that he had been denied a wheelchair. A prosecutor for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission argued that Gambaryan was not in bad health, and his herniated disc is a malady more than a decade old.
Nigeria’s crackdown on the crypto industry and ban on cryptocurrency exchanges followed a significant devaluation of Nigeria’s naira fiat currency. Market data indicates that the naira plunged to $0.00063 from $0.013 a year ago, or a loss of nearly 95 percent of its value against the dollar.
Though local authorities have pointed fingers at crypto exchanges for the devaluation of the Nigerian naira, Bloomberg reported at the end of July that mismanagement also is to blame. The report said Nigeria’s country’s economy has stagnated for years, and “its resource riches plundered by a politically connected elite.”
Featured image via Ideogram
