The U.S. crypto executive who spent eight months in Nigerian detention : Planet Money : NPR
The trip that changed Tigran Gambaryan’s life forever was supposed to be short — just a few days. When he flew to Nigeria in February of 2024, he didn’t even check a bag. Tigran is a former IRS Special Agent. He made his name investigating high-profile dark web and cryptocurrency cases. Some colleagues called him the ‘Crypto Wizard’ because of his pioneering work tracing crypto transactions for law enforcement. Since 2021, he’s worked at the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance.
Tigran was in Nigeria as a sort of envoy. He was supposed to meet with government officials and show them that Binance – and crypto itself – was safe, reliable, and law-abiding.
One of the most important meetings was at the headquarters of the Office of the National Security Advisor. He says officials there made him wait hours. And when officials finally came into the room, they accused Binance of a host of crimes and of tanking the Nigerian economy. They then told Tigran that they weren’t going to let him leave Nigeria until they were satisfied that Binance was going to remedy the situation.
On today’s show, in a collaboration with Click Here from Recorded Future News, we hear about Tigran’s eight month detention in Nigeria. In his first recorded interview after his release, he shares details about his captivity, how he survived one of Nigeria’s most infamous prisons, and how he got out.
More from Click Here about Gambaryan:
- Detained execs, a bold escape, and tax evasion charges: Nigeria takes aim at Binance
- The company man: US glacial response to Nigeria’s detention of former IRS crypto investigator rankles federal agents
- Nigerian court drops charges against detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan
- Tracers on the stage: Talking with the sleuths who cracked the big crypto cases of the 2010s
This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Dina Temple-Raston and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and Sean Powers. It was edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
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Music: NPR Source Audio – “The Crypto Heist,” “Trapped Like a Bird,” and “Menage a Moi”
