The trip that changed Tigran Gambaryan's life forever was supposed to be short — just a few days. When he flew to Nigeria in February of 2024, he didn't even check a bag. Tigran is a former IRS Special Agent. He made his name investigating high-profile dark web and cryptocurrency cases. Some colleagues called him the 'Crypto Wizard' because of his pioneering work tracing crypto transactions for law enforcement. Since 2021, he's worked at the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance.Tigran was in Nigeria as a sort of envoy. He was supposed to meet with government officials and show them that Binance – and crypto itself – was safe, reliable, and law-abiding.One of the most important meetings was at the headquarters of the Office of the National Security Advisor. He says officials there made him wait hours. And when officials finally came into the room, they accused Binance of a host of crimes and of tanking the Nigerian economy. They then told Tigran that they weren't going to let him leave Nigeria until they were satisfied that Binance was going to remedy the situation.On today's show, in a collaboration with Click Here from Recorded Future News, we hear about Tigran's eight month detention in Nigeria. In his first recorded interview after his release, he shares details about his captivity, how he survived one of Nigeria's most infamous prisons, and how he got out.Support our show and hear bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or on npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What happened to Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria?
When he showed up... They're like, oh, just come in, just sit down. They'll come in in a little bit. We waited for a couple of hours.
Were you worried that you were waiting that long?
It started getting a little weird.
Teagan was there with a colleague named Nadeem Anjawala. Nadeem was younger. He wasn't a former cop. He was more like Binance's business guy for Africa.
And the two of them were waiting to meet with the head of the NSA to talk through how Binance and Nigeria could work better together. But that meeting never happened. Instead, eventually, a bunch of Nigerian officials filed into the room. None of them were really making eye contact with Tigran or Nadim. And when the meeting did start, Tigran realized it was not what they signed up for.
one of the guys who was actually responsible for this, he comes in, kind of slaps a folder on the table, starts saying, you know, you've destroyed the Nigerian economy.
The Nigerian authorities told them that Binance had tanked their currency, that they'd laundered money, and that they'd evaded taxes.
According to Tigran, they basically said, we are not going to let you leave until we are satisfied that Binance is on the up and up. Among other things, they said they wanted Binance to pay those taxes and also some fines. And they said they wanted more control over the platform, including information on Binance's users.
We want user records for every single Nigerian user. Until that's done, you can't leave.
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