Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has withdrawn tax evasion charges against Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, leaving Binance as the only defendant. This comes a week after sixteen US lawmakers wrote a letter that accused Nigeria of wrongfully detaining Gambrayan.

Gambaryan was arrested by Nigerian security authorities in Nigeria on February 26th alongside escaped British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla while on an official visit to the country.

US lawmakers have accused Nigeria of wrongfully detaining an American staff member of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in an attempt to extort money.

“The charges against Mr. Gambaryan are baseless and constitute a coercion tactic by the Nigerian government to extort his employer, Binance,” the lawmakers wrote in a June 4 letter which also said he had been subjected to harsh treatment and called for swift action to save his life.

“Mr. Gambaryan’s health and well-being are in danger, and we fear for his life,” read the letter citing Gambaryan’s recent diagnosis of malaria and pneumonia.

“We are relieved that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have served and filed amended charges today, resulting in tax charges against Tigran Gambaryan being dropped, further illustrating that Tigran is not a decision-maker at Binance and does not need to be held in order for Binance to resolve issues with the Nigerian government,” a Binance spokesperson said in a statement shared with pan-African tech publication TechCabal.

In March 2024, Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla were charged with tax evasion by the Federal Inland Revenue Service for not paying taxes on cryptocurrency transactions worth billions of naira. An amended lawsuit in May, 2024, further accused Binance of non-payment of value-added tax and company tax.

Although the tax evasion charges have been dropped, Gambaryan will continue to stay in custody due to pending money laundering charges from the EFCC. Upon Gambaryan’s arrest in February, he appeared before a court to face money laundering charges from Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the EFCC.