The pressure campaign secures the release of a crypto executive from a Nigerian prison

Crypto magnate Tigran Gambaryan has been released from a Nigerian prison and returned to the US following a high-pressure campaign by current and former government officials, members of Congress and federal lawmakers who urged the Biden Administration to intervene on his behalf.

It is unclear how important Gambaryan’s release was to the White House, but on Tuesday afternoon, President Biden held a phone call with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, expressing gratitude for his leadership in securing Gambaryan’s release. Last week, Nigerian officials dropped the money-laundering charges against the official, allowing him to be released to seek medical attention for worsening health problems.

Gambaryan, a US citizen and former IRS agent who now serves as Global Head of Financial Crimes Compliance and Investigations at crypto exchange Binance, spent eight months in Kuje prison in Nigeria after being arrested and charged with money laundering and tax evasion while traveling to the African nation. on behalf of his employer.

The Nigerian government says it will continue money laundering and tax evasion charges against Binance (which it denies) without Gambaryan.

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Sean Reyes, Utah attorney general, speaks during a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. A group of 50 attorneys general has opened a wide-ranging investigation into whether Alpha’s advertising practices (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Gambaryan did not give an official statement to the press, but in an exchange with FOX Business about direct messages to X, he said that the most important thing for him is to reconnect with his family – wife and two young children – and to deal with health problems. While in prison, Gambaryan suffered from malaria, pneumonia and problems with a herniated disc, which left him in a wheelchair.

Earlier this month, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and seventeen other state attorneys general, including New York AG Letitia James, signed a bipartisan letter to Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asking them to nominate Gambaryan as a hostage following Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery. and the Hostage Accountability Act.

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Presentations of cryptocurrencies are seen in front of the Binance logo shown in this photo taken November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The 2019 law is named after FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared while traveling to Iran as a private investigator in 2007. It is designed to give designated hostages and their families priority in US government efforts to secure their release.

“Tigran Gambaryan is being held illegally by the Nigerian government under potentially life-threatening conditions. This is not a partisan issue, but a humanitarian issue and an important patriotic duty,” said Reyes.

The AGs letter followed similar calls from a group of 100 former DOJ employees and prosecutors, some of whom had worked with Gambaryan during his time in government, and sixteen members of Congress urging the Biden Administration to bring home the Binance executive.

Tigran Gambaryan, head of financial crime compliance at Binance Holdings Ltd., center, in a court in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Gambaryan was accused along with the company of charges including non-payment of value-added-tax. co (David Exodus/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

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In July, Rep. Republican House Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), representing Gambaryan from his home state of Georgia, introduced a bipartisan resolution alongside Rep. French Hill (R-AR) aimed at urging the Nigerian government to immediately release Gambaryan from prison. . The bill, which received the support of thirty-five Republicans and twelve Democrats, was co-authored by former Florida representative Connie Mack IV, who also collaborated with a group of state attorneys general to lobby the Biden Administration for Gambaryan’s release.

Mack, a four-year congressman from Florida’s 14th district and the grandson of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, was instructed by Gambaryan’s friends to help him with his case because of Mack’s previous experience lobbying for the return of American citizenship. arrested in Colombia in 2019.