Peach Tree Times

Yuki Gambaryan, a resident of Suwanee and the spouse of former U.S. federal agent Tigran Gambaryan, expressed her concerns about the lack of understanding from her contacts in the U.S. Embassy in Abuja regarding their "sense of urgency" to bring Gambaryan home from Nigeria. He has been detained there since February 26. Yuki voiced her concerns during an April 23 episode of the Click Here podcast.

"I have a point of contact," said Yuki. "They seem kind of out of touch to me. They don't seem to understand our sense of urgency."

Tigran Gambaryan, currently serving as the head of financial crime compliance at cryptocurrency exchange Binance, was invited to Nigeria for a meeting with government officials in February, along with another Binance employee, as reported by DL News. However, the Nigerian government detained both employees and accused Binance of devaluing Nigeria's currency, the naira. While his colleague managed to escape from Nigeria, Gambaryan remains in detention facing a criminal money laundering charge. His attorney Mark Mordi suggested during last week's court proceedings that this is "purely state-sanctioned hostage-taking," implying that the Nigerian government is detaining Gambaryan to extract a fine from Binance. Multiple delays have pushed back Gambaryan's bail hearing to May 17.

According to Yuki on the podcast, an embassy member began visiting Gambaryan at his detention center in March. However, after being moved to Kuje prison outside Abuja, he has only received one visit. Podcast host Dina Temple-Raston relayed information from an anonymous U.S. State Department source who said that the Department "doesn't like to interfere with legal proceedings in other countries." The same source noted that the image of the cryptocurrency industry has suffered over the past year. Despite reaching out to several Congressional offices about her husband's situation, Yuki revealed that she received no responses.

John Baker, a former colleague of Gambaryan at the IRS who has since retired from government service, shared his initial belief on the podcast that the U.S. government would intervene due to Gambaryan's high regard and reputation from his time in U.S. government service. Baker expected that Gambaryan's "friends in the various agencies, including the FBI or the U.S. Attorney's Office," would advocate for him. However, he noted that it seems most people are unaware of Gambaryan's situation. Temple-Raston questioned whether U.S. officials would have been "so hands off" if an employee of a company like Apple or ExxonMobil were detained.

Yuki has initiated a change.org petition urging the U.S. government to assist in bringing her husband back home to their family in Suwanee, as per the petition details. Yuki highlighted her husband's global recognition for his commitment to cleaning up the crypto industry and combating financial crimes, including efforts against notorious cyber criminals involved in drug dealing, human trafficking, and money laundering. She stressed that Gambaryan joined Binance with an aim to make the cryptocurrency ecosystem safer and to "fix past compliance issues." She firmly asserted her husband's innocence.

According to a post on Binance's website, Gambaryan is acknowledged worldwide "as someone fully dedicated to law enforcement." He served as a U.S. federal agent for ten years, investigating cases related to "national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography, tax evasion, and bank secrecy act violations." During his tenure at the U.S. Treasury Department’s IRS Criminal Investigations unit, Gambaryan collaborated with agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the United States Secret Service.