Nigerian writer Cheta Nwanze stated that the ongoing imprisonment of former U.S. federal agent Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria could reflect poorly on the U.S. government. Nwanze shared his statement on a June 17 episode of the Nigerian Politics Weekly podcast.
"Now, it's gotten to a place where the U.S. now begins to look bad, because the U.S. has a decorated law enforcement officer who was doing his job and all of a sudden is being detained for no reason," said Nwanze.
Jeff John Roberts, author of the Fortune Crypto newsletter, said Gambaryan is an "American hero" who served as a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for ten years prior to joining the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to Roberts, Gambaryan has been "languishing in prison" in Nigeria after he was arrested on "spurious" charges in February and is now suffering from malaria and pneumonia. Roberts added that members of the Nigerian media have begun to speak out about the situation, saying that the Nigerian government is using Gambaryan as a "scapegoat" for economic mismanagement.
For ten years, Gambaryan was a U.S. federal agent who investigated cases related to "national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography, tax evasion, and bank secrecy act violations," according to a post on Binance's website. Binance hired him in 2021 to help fix historical compliance issues, and in 2022 and 2023, his team assisted law enforcement agencies around the world in freezing and seizing more than $2.2 billion worth of assets.
Sixteen members of Congress wrote a letter on June 4 calling on President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens to classify Gambaryan as a "U.S. Citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government" and escalate his case to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. They said Gambaryan's detention "has been marked by excessive and harsh treatment." The lawmakers emphasized that "the charges against Mr. Gambaryan are baseless and constitute a coercion tactic by the Nigerian government to extort his employer, Binance." Other signees included Rep. Rich McCormick, whose district encompasses Gambaryan's hometown of Suwanee, Georgia, and Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in June, McCormick described Gambaryan's treatment as "appalling" and said the medical treatment he has received for malaria has been "less than adequate," according to a video of the hearing. McCormick believes Gambaryan meets the criteria of a "U.S. citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government" and asked whether his case would be escalated to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. Carstens did not provide an answer but Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter said they have requested "humanitarian release" and are monitoring the situation.
Nwanze is a Nigerian writer who uses "big data" to analyze West Africa, according to his Medium account where he shares his work with his 12.4 thousand followers.
