- Binance's extraordinary legal fight with Nigeria just entered a new phase.
- The crypto exchange is facing three actions by authorities.
- Tigran Gambaryan recently shared details of his incarceration in the nation.
After months of quietly enduring Nigeria’s three-pronged legal prosecution, Binance finally made a move.
On Monday, the crypto exchange urged a Nigerian court to invalidate a staggering $81 billion penalty sought by tax authorities for operating without a licence.
The reason why was shockingly prosaic — Binance’s lawyer said prosecutors had failed to notify the company of the action because they used the wrong email address.
This violated procedural rules, Ckukwuka Ikwuazom, Binance’s attorney at the hearing, told the court.
What happens next may determine whether the world’s largest crypto exchange will continue to face a fine that would be 18 times greater than the $4.3 billion it paid US authorities in 2023.
Here is a timeline of the events so far:
February 26, 2024
Nigerian officials place Gambaryan, the head of Binance’s financial crimes compliance unit, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the exchange’s regional head in Kenya, under house arrest in Abuja. They make no public statement.
People familiar with the action tell DL News that officials at Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are holding Binance and the two men largely responsible for a 90% plunge in the value of the naira, the nation’s fiat currency.
The authorities allege Binance’s digital version of the naira is enabling bad actors to manipulate the currency. Moreover, they say Binance is permitting criminals to launder illicit sums on its crypto exchange.
February
According to people familiar with the matter, Nigerian authorities demand that Binance disclose personal and transaction data for millions of customers in the nation. Binance declines to do so.
March 22
Anjarwalla eludes his guards during a visit to a mosque and uses a Kenyan passport he did not surrender to escape from the airport in Nigeria’s capital. Nigerian officials later say Anjarwalla has turned up in Kenya and issue an Interpol Red Notice.
March 29
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency charges Binance and Gambaryan with money laundering in connection to an alleged $35 million in illicit transactions.
April
Nigerian officials freeze 1,100 bank accounts of crypto traders as part of a crackdown on alleged currency manipulation, according to court documents. The action is connected to the state’s legal battle with Binance.
Gambaryan is remanded to Kuje Prison on April 8 after a judge denied him bail on the money laundering charge.
May 7
Binance CEO Richard Teng accuses Nigerian officials of trying to shake down Binance by demanding a $150 million bribe from Gambaryan when he visited the country in January.
“Our 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,” Teng said in a blog post.
May 23
Gambaryan collapses in court on the second day of his trial. He is suffering from malaria and pneumonia, according to his lawyers and family members.
Justice Emeka Nwite directed prison officials to take Gambaryan to Nizayime Hospital, an upscale private medical facility in Abuja, the capital, for treatment, DL News learns from a person familiar with the decision.
June 8
In an exclusive interview, Yuki Gambaryan tells DL News that she expected more help from the US government in pressing for her husband’s release from a Nigerian prison. “I am shocked at how long it took for us to get to this point,” she said. “It feels like the US government just got to the starting line now, which should have happened a long time ago.”
June 21
Two members of the US Congress — Representative French Hill, an Arkansas Republican, and Representative Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania — visit Gambaryan in Kuje Prison and report that his condition is worsening. “He’s being denied access to adequate medical attention,” Hill says on X.
July 5
Olubukola Akinwunmi, the head of payments policy and regulation at the Central Bank of Nigeria, testifies at Gambaryan’s trial that Binance was operating illegally in the nation.
September 27
Linda Greenfield-Thomas, the US ambassador to the United Nations, tells Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, that resolving Gambaryan’s plight was important for US relations with Africa’s most populous nation.
October 11
Justice Nwite dismisses Gambaryan’s bail petition on a technicality and he is remanded to prison for the duration of his trial.
October 18
Gambaryan misses a court appearance after his condition worsens. A prison official tells the court he was “too ill” to make the journey.
October 23
Nigerian prosecutors drop charges against Gambaryan and tell the court he should not be held responsible for actions taken by his employer, Binance.
March 27, 2025
In an exclusive interview, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the government’s Minister of Information, said Nigeria took action against Binance in February 2024 because it found evidence the exchange allegedly facilitated payments for terror organisations and kidnappers.
April 1
Speaking at a crypto conference in New York, Gambaryan says he “almost died twice” during his incarceration in Nigeria
April 7
Binance asks a Nigerian court to invalidate an $81 billion penalty sought by tax authorities for operating without a licence.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com. Ed Robinson is the story editor at DL News. Contact him at ed@dlnews.com.