Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan’s healthcare journey in Nigeria: What the records show

On Tuesday, 10 December 2024, Congressman Richard McCormick attacked Nigeria on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican politician from the U.S. state of Georgia was among lawmakers who campaigned vigorously for the release of Tigran Gambaryan, the Binance official detained and prosecuted in Nigeria before charges were dropped on humanitarian grounds on 23 October 2024.

Forty-eight days after Mr Garbaryan returned to America, the lawmaker rose during plenary to celebrate his constituent’s return to his home country. In his eleven-sentence speech that day, Mr McCormick descended on Nigeria, saying the West African nation falsely accused the Binance official of money laundering and tax evasion.

He said while the American was detained in Kuje prison for months, “he was repeatedly denied access to medical care as his health deteriorated, denied basic due process rights, and otherwise treated inhumanely.”

The claim that Mr Gambaryan was denied access to medical care while in detention in Nigeria was repeatedly made by American officials as they pushed for his release. In a series of posts on X on 14 February, the Binance official amplified that sentiment, claiming Nigerian authorities blocked him from accessing treatment. “They even threatened administrators at Nizamiye Hospital, instructing them not to admit me when I was extremely ill,” Mr Gambaryan said. “Additionally, they pressured the hospital to withhold my medical records from my attorneys.”

But are the claims valid? In its attempt to answer this question, this newspaper reviewed volumes of court records and other documents and interviewed people familiar with Mr Gambaryan’s case. Our findings showed the Binance official was consistently allowed medical care while in custody and was indeed attended to by medics in at least four reputable medical facilities.

Mr Gambaryan, his company, Binance Holdings Limited and Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Africa regional manager at the crypto exchange platform, were detained on 26 February 2024 for failing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies investigating how crypto exchange firms, including Binance, sabotaged the Nigerian economy and caused the West African nation substantial financial loss.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) then brought a criminal charge alleging money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorism financing. The EFCC arraigned the defendants on 8 April 2024, after which Mr Gambaryan was remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre pending the hearing of his bail application. His colleague, Mr Anjarwalla, had escaped from lawful custody on 22 March, seventeen days before their arraignment. On 17 May, the court delivered a ruling denying Mr Gambaryan bail.

Six days later, on 23 May, Mr Gambaryan’s counsel, Mark Mordi (SAN), brought an application saying his client had a deteriorating health condition that needed prompt medical attention. Justice Emeka Nwite immediately ordered the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to allow the defendant to be treated at Nizamiye Hospital in Abuja or any other health facility within the court’s jurisdiction deemed appropriate for his care.

Court filings and other documents reviewed for this report showed that Nigerian authorities complied with that order and gave Mr Gambaryan consistent access to medical care throughout his time in custody, contrary to claims by the Binance executive and American officials.

According to Mr Gambaryan’s medical report, which the NCoS submitted to Justice Nwite’s court, the Binance official arrived at the Kuje Prison with some medication. Based on his health history, he was admitted to the facility’s clinic, where the prison’s resident doctor cared for him regularly. However, on 13 May, the detainee complained of a sore throat and requested to see an otolaryngologist. An ENT specialist from the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital was brought in to see him. He diagnosed acute pharyngotonsillitis and placed the patient on antibiotics, antihistamine, nasal spray and warm saline.

The report said Mr Gambaryan was treated for vomiting, headache, body weakness and diarrhoea on 13 May and cough, poor appetite and sore throat on 3 June. Although laboratory tests and physical examinations did not reveal any significant findings, the inmate was taken to the privately-owned Nizamiye Hospital (his preferred medical facility) when his complaint of chest infection persisted.

Of all the investigations done on him that day, only his white blood cell counts revealed abnormalities. The facility prescribed drugs and recommended managing him as an outpatient. But on returning to the custodial centre, Mr Gambaryan reportedly refused to take his medications, insisting that he must be taken back to Nizamiye for admission. “It took the intervention and persuasion from nurses to accept the medication,” a medical report said.

Three days later, on 6 June, Mr Gambaryan presented with cough, fever, sneezing, chest pain and catarrh. Tests were done, and treatment was administered, with two senior medical doctors (a controller of corrections and an assistant controller general of corrections) visiting on two occasions to counsel him on the need to comply with medications and treatment. An ENT specialist also visited him and prescribed medication. However, eleven days later, the inmate complained of difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath, although doctors determined that his respiratory rate was a typical 16 breaths per minute. Later, Mr Gambaryan complained of lower back pain and numbness in the lower limb, saying he was diagnosed with having a herniated disc about 10 years ago. “He was seen limping, though physical examination revealed no abnormality,” prison doctors said.

In its report on Mr Gambaryan’s treatment, Nizamiye Hospital said the Binance official was brought to its facility on 3 June 2024 on account of left-sided chest pain. He was seen by the doctor on duty, who noted that he was not in any visible distress and his vital signs were normal and stable. “He had a physical examination with no significant findings,” the report said. “He also had a chest examination with the pulmonologist at the emergency room with no significant findings at that moment. He had some investigations carried out, and he had elevated white blood cells and neutrophils in his full blood count with nitrite positive in his urinalysis. He was prescribed oral antibiotics and an analgesic following a review of his investigation results.”

Despite these medical treatment regimes accorded to Mr Gambaryan, he, his lawyers, and American officials continued to claim that the Binance official was being denied access to healthcare. With the claim unabating, the Nigerian presidency directed authorities at the State House Clinic to conduct a more detailed medical evaluation of him. The three-person medical team from the presidential facility met Mr Gambaryan in detention. Their assessment “revealed a young man with stable vitals, not in any obvious distress but with a limping gait while working with support”.

Based on that preliminary medical assessment, the Binance executive was taken to LifeBridge Medical Diagnostics Centre in Abuja, where a lumbosacral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was done. Mr Gambaryan was later admitted to the State House Clinic for optimal nursing care and basic laboratory investigations. Doctors determined his general laboratory investigation results as “essentially normal.” However, one medical report said his urine drug test was positive for morphine because the patient was on pain management at the time.

On 18 July 2024, a neurosurgeon was called in to examine the patient. His findings were consistent with the report of the earlier MRI done on him and the diagnosis of a second neurosurgeon whose opinion was sought. The first neurosurgeon placed the patient on medication, advised physiotherapy and strongly recommended a lumbar discectomy surgery as soon as possible.

However, the head of medical services, O.A. Onovo, said in a 29 August 2024 report that Mr Gambaryan was still dissatisfied with the medical interventions offered to him at the State House Clinic. He said the patient intermittently refused prescribed medications and food to force a transfer out of the facility. “He was subsequently discharged and returned to the Nigerian Correctional Service at about 1300 hours, 21 July 2024, with no obvious deterioration in his health in the five-day admission period,” Mr Onovo added.

On 23 August, about a month after Mr Gambaryan forced his discharge from the State House Clinic, his lawyers, Aluko & Oyebode law firm, wrote to the National Security Adviser (NSA), complaining about their client’s poor health and lack of access to care. That correspondence prompted the NSA to commission another round of investigation to ascertain the health status and history of the Binance executive. That extensive investigation found that Mr Gambaryan received access to some of the best medical treatments available in Abuja, was strong healthwise, and had no compelling ill health condition that the medical team of the Nigerian Correctional Service and the State House Clinic could not handle.

Despite that finding, Mr Gambaryan’s counsel still filed a second bail application, claiming their client was too sick to stand trial and was being denied care. The prosecutor opposed the application. Justice Nwite agreed, saying the American failed to convince the court that he was denied access to medical treatment and that the Nigerian Correctional Service did not have adequate facilities for his health care. The court then adjourned the matter to 18 October, 22 November and 25 November for continuation of trial.

However, on 23 October, the Nigerian government suddenly dropped charges against the Binance official on humanitarian grounds after extensive diplomatic pressure from the U.S. government.

Nigerian authorities have maintained that Mr Gambaryan’s consistent complaint of ill health, even when physical examinations and test results showed otherwise, was to ridicule the West African nation and pressure it to terminate his trial and release him. “It was a blackmailing and propagandist gimmick to force Nigeria to free him,” an official said, asking not to be named because he had no authorisation to discuss the matter. “It’s great that we stood firm and refused to succumb to blackmail.”

While at the Kuje Correctional Centre, a prison official said Mr Gambaryan had a comparatively comfortable room fitted with a mosquito net on his bed to protect him from mosquitoes and a private bathroom cleaned daily. “He was very comfortable, and he loved the prison a lot,” the official said, asking not to be named because he had no permission to discuss the matter.

The official said while in custody, Mr Gambaryan was full of antics to create the impression that he was gravely ill. “When some members of congress were visiting him, three days to their arrival, Tigran stopped wearing shirts and wore only shorts. He wanted to catch a cold and malaria so he would be sick. That norm always preceded any important visit, including consular ones. He would limp and then walk normally when his visitors were gone. He also demanded a wheelchair for drama and to earn sympathy in court. As a former law enforcement agent, he knew all the tricks suspects play and utilised them against Nigeria.”

When contacted, Mr Gambaryan said the claims by Nigerian officials in court filings and in interviews are “complete lies” and that he was not provided any healthcare in Nigeria. “I almost died twice at Kuje because they didn’t get me to a hospital,” he said. “I don’t really care about them anymore. U.S. authorities will deal with them. I am done. I went through enough just for trying to help them. They are lucky they didn’t get sanctioned.”

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PREMIUM TIMES requested the Binance official provide verifiable evidence of healthcare denial—specific details, dates, and documentation to support his claims. But in his response, he said the details we sought “were already out there—in print and in podcasts.” He also advised this newspaper to watch the recording of the U.S. congressional hearing on his case as evidence of his claims.

In exchanges with this reporter, Mr Gambaryan also repeated claims that Nigerian authorities threatened Nizamiye Hospital not to admit him when he fell ill and that the facility hurriedly discharged him while he had pneumonia. The American did not provide evidence to back that allegation. He merely said his team sourced information about the Nigerian government’s intimidation of Nizamiye from the Turkish Ministry of Health.

However, Nizamiye Hospital has countered Mr Gambaryan, saying his claims are false. Mohammed Abubakar, the organisation’s deputy chief operations officer, said officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service brought the American to the facility on 3 June 2024 and that he was immediately admitted to the emergency ward of the hospital.

He said after a series of tests were done, doctors determined that he was in reasonably good health and that his condition did not warrant prolonged admission. Drugs were then prescribed, and he was discharged, Mr Abubakar said. “Our medics did their job professionally, and at no time did the government or anyone else threaten our hospital,” the official said. “Nizamiye is a private hospital incorporated in Nigeria. The Turkish Ministry of Health has no role or influence in its operation and could not have provided information to anyone about our patients.”