Tigran Gambrayan, a Binance executive held in detention for eight months, has revealed some diplomatic moves behind his release, particularly how President Bola Tinubu demanded appreciation from the American government as a condition to free him.

A few months after Mr Gambaryan’s release, the Binance official told Wired, an American bi-monthly magazine, he learnt the statement of appreciation by then-President Biden-led White House, praising Mr Tinubu for releasing him on “humanitarian” grounds was part of the deal to secure his release.

“The statement of thanks, I later learned, was part of the deal the U.S. government struck with Nigeria, which also included aiding in its investigation of Binance—which is still ongoing,” Wired reported on Monday.

Citing sources familiar with the diplomatic moves and power play behind Mr Gambaryan’s release, the U.S.-based magazine revealed that Mr Tinubu’s desperation to meet Mr Biden at the United Nations General Assembly partly influenced the release of Mr Gambaryan last October.

“Around the same time, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had a phone call with his Nigerian counterpart, Nuhu Ribadu, in which he essentially asked that Gambaryan be freed, according to multiple sources involved in pushing for Gambaryan’s release,” Wired reported.

It added, “Perhaps most impactful of all, several supporters say, they learned that US officials had made clear that Gambaryan’s case was going to present an obstacle to any meeting between President Biden and Nigeria’s President Tinubu at the UN General Assembly or elsewhere, a notion that deeply troubled the Nigerians.”

Mr Tinubu’s desperation to meet Mr Biden, as revealed by Wired, came a few months after Peoples Gazette exclusively reported that the Nigerian president hired lobbyists in the U.S. to help convince lawmakers and policymakers that he carries acceptable personal probity to lead Nigeria, after suffering a reputational hit that followed reports of his involvement in illicit drug peddling and certificate fraud. 

Mr Gambaryan also revealed how his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, scaled a fence and fled Nigeria while Nigerian security officials assigned to keep watch were sleeping, his relationship with disgraced police officer Abba Kyari and how Kuje prison officials demanded bribes in thousands of dollars from him while he was detained.

In February 2023, The Gazette reported how Mr Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were lured into National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu for a meeting and were later detained on the accusation that Binance was sabotaging Nigeria’s currency.