The Federal Government has dropped all charges against Tigran Gambaryan, an executive at Binance Holdings, who has been facing a money laundering trial from detention since April.
A lawyer representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – the prosecuting agency, announced the withdrawal of the charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday.
Announcing the withdrawal of the charges, the lawyer said Gambaryan, a United States citizen, was merely an employee of Binance, whose activities he was being prosecuted for.
Mark Mordi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) representing Gambaryan, agreed with the prosecution, saying that his client was not involved in the company’s broader financial decisions.
Recall that the judge, Emeka Nwite, rejected his second bail application on 11 October, ruling that Gambaryan’s grounds of ill health were not sufficient to release him from detention.
The judge then fixed 18 October for the continuation for the trial but Gambaryan was surprisingly absent.
The judge then rescheduled the trial for 25 October, which appears to have now been overtaken by the event of Wednesday’s unpublicized hearing.
Wednesday’s hearing abruptly ended the case. Gambaryan has been held at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja since his arraignment in April.
He is standing trial alongside Binance, a cryptocurrency company, on five counts of money laundering and currency speculation involving as much as $34.4 million.
Binance is facing tax evasion charges in a separate case before another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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