According to The Wall Street Journal, two senior executives of Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, have been detained against their will by Nigerian authorities for the past two weeks.
Nigeria's Detention of Binance Executives Causes International Concern
Detained Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla found themselves in a dispute between Binance and the Nigerian government.
The detention of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla appears to stem from accusations leveled against Binance by the Nigerian government.
Reports had emerged showing that Nigeria was demanding a $10 billion penalty from Binance for allegedly facilitating the processing of approximately $26 billion of untraceable funds within the country.
Events began when the Nigerian government sent an invitation to Binance executives to discuss the ongoing dispute.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla arrived in Abuja on February 25 for the meeting.
However, after initial meetings with government officials, the executives were reportedly taken to a guesthouse run by the Nigerian National Security Agency, instructed to pack their belongings, and held in de facto detention, as revealed by their families to Wired.
While the names of the people in question were not included in the initial news about the detentions, it was later revealed that Gambaryan served as Binance's head of financial crimes compliance and had US citizenship, while Anjarwalla served as Binance's Africa regional manager based in Kenya and was based in the UK and It was revealed that he had dual Kenyan citizenship.
*This is not investment advice.