Odaily News Binance Financial Crime Compliance Director Tigran Gambaryan recently reiterated that rogue Nigerian lawmakers had demanded a $150 million bribe in exchange for dropping a lawsuit against Binance. The lawmakers wanted the funds transferred directly into their cryptocurrency wallets, and they used “fake cameras and media” to make the meeting with visiting Binance executives look legitimate.
In May 2024, it was reported that Binance CEO Richard Teng accused members of the Nigerian House of Representatives Financial Crimes Committee (HCFC) of demanding a $150 million bribe. At the time, Nigerian Information Minister Mohammed Idris denied the allegations, calling them a diversionary tactic by the company "eager to cover up the serious criminal charges it faces."
However, Gambaryan insisted that the attempt was indeed carried out with the involvement of Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS). He also stated: "The Nigerian government has been publicly claiming that $26 billion of mysterious funds have flowed out of Nigeria (through Binance), which is complete nonsense. This information was provided at their request and is just the cumulative transaction data of Nigerians on the platform. The money did not flow out of Nigeria - it was just people buying and selling cryptocurrencies. For example, if you trade 100 times with $100, that's $10,000 in trading volume, but in fact, you only used $100. Again, this is just another example of them lying to cover up a fake investigation."
Just after Gambaryan shared these explosive details, Nigerian Information Minister Idris issued a statement denying it. However, the statement acknowledged the bribery allegations, but Idris pointed out that it was the Nigerian government that launched the investigation, "even though no one has formally filed a lawsuit." His statement also revealed that the Nigerian government rejected the US's offer of $5 million in exchange for Gambaryan's release. (Bitcoin.com)