The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged the Federal High Court hearing the bail plea of Binance employee, Tigran Gambaryan, not to allow him out of the country.
According to local reports, EFCC, through its lawyer, told the court on April 23 2024 that the anti-graft agency uncovered an alleged plot by Gambaryan to obtain a new passport to facilitate his escape from Nigeria after the EFCC had seized his passport.
“There was an attempt by this defendant to procure another travelling document even when he was aware that his passport was in the custody of the state. He pretended as if the said passport was stolen,” said EFCC lawyer, Emeka Iheanacho.
Gambaryan, Binance Holdings Limited, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a third employee who already smuggled his way out of the country, are being prosecuted by the EFCC on money laundering charges.
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According to Iheanacho, during the period when Anjarwalla escaped custody, Gambaryan allegedly attempted to flee the country as well but was apprehended by the commission’s operatives.
“This court will be taking a grave risk to grant the defendant bail. This is also considering the fact that he has no attachment to any community in Nigeria. The experience we have had with the man who escaped to Kenya while his United Kingdom passport is in Nigeria will certainly repeat itself if this defendant is granted bail.”
The assertions by the prosecution were dismissed however by Gambaryan’s lawyer, who had described his continued detention as ‘purely a state-sanctioned hostage taking,‘ saying that his client was being held by EFCC as a leverage to obtain information from his employer.
According to the defence counsel, Mark Modi, his client had no intentions to flee the country, labelling the claims by EFCC as unfounded and unsupported hearsay, relying on evidence deemed inadmissible.
“The prosecution has not presented any credible evidence to establish why the defendant should not be granted bail,” the defence counsel maintained.
Gambaryan’s lawyer requested the court to grant bail to the defendant and specify conditions that would guarantee his presence at the trial.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Nwite postponed the ruling until May 17 2024.
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