Yuki told the United States Parliament that her husband had spent 65 days in custody in Nigeria.
Yuki Gambaryan, the wife of the detained Binance Holdings Limited executive, Tigran Gambaryan, has raised the alarm that the Nigerian government kept her husband in the Kuje prison together with Boko Haram terrorists and bandits.
Yuki told the United States Parliament that her husband had spent 65 days in custody in Nigeria.
The Binance executive’s wife, who was represented by her congressman, Rich McCormick, said this at Tuesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable on Americans detained abroad.
Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were arrested and detained on February 26 following an investigation into Binance’s activities in Nigeria.
On April 8, the Nigerian fovernment arraigned Binance and Gambaryan on five count charges bordering on money laundering.
On Tuesday, Gambaryan’s wife said that while she couldn’t speak on behalf of Binance, the charges against her husband were completely unfounded.
Yuki said, “My husband and the father of our two young children, Tigrin, has been in Nigerian custody for 65 days, the longest two months of our lives.
“On February 25, he landed in Abuja at the Nigerian government’s request for a financial compliance policy. This is what Tigran does. He helps countries navigate the notoriously prickly finance, crime, and compliance world.
“He spends his days investigating and pursuing criminal activity on Binance, his employer’s cryptocurrency platform. However, 24 hours after his arrival, he was arrested and detained without charge or explanation.
“Today, my husband sits in the notorious Kuje prison, a place that has held militants from Islamic State and Boko Haram.”
She further accused the Nigerian government of using her husband as a bargaining chip, which according to her, is devastating.
“Ironically, Tigran spent more than a decade as a special agent for the United States General Revolution Revenue Service, investigating issues of national security, terrorist financing, identity theft, distribution of tile pornography, tax evasion and more,” she said.