The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, Ginger Onwusibe, has denied claims by Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan that he was among three Nigerian lawmakers who demanded a $150 million bribe to prevent Gambaryan’s arrest and prosecution for alleged financial crimes.
Gambaryan had taken to social media platform X on Friday to accuse Onwusibe, along with fellow lawmakers Philip Agbese and Peter Akpanke, of making the demand during a meeting. However, Onwusibe has strongly refuted the claim, describing it as false and defamatory.
In a statement on Saturday, Onwusibe, who represents Isiala Ngwa North/South Federal Constituency of Abia State, noted that he initially chose not to respond since the matter is already in court. However, he decided to speak up due to public reactions and what he called the “unfair demonization” of his person, his political party, and his ethnic group.
He explained that the Committee on Anti-Corruption started investigating Binance after receiving a petition from a civil society group, the Empowerment for Unemployed Youth Initiative, which accused the company of financial and economic crimes that threatened Nigeria’s economy.
According to him, the committee invited Binance CEO Richard Teng to a public hearing scheduled for January 10, 2024. However, Binance requested a pre-hearing meeting, which was granted and held on January 8, 2024, at the National Assembly complex.
Onwusibe said he could not attend due to other official duties and instead sent three committee members and a clerk to meet Binance’s six-member team, including legal counsel. He maintained that the meeting was professional and transparent, with no demands for bribes.
“Despite agreeing to attend the public hearing, Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, failed to appear on multiple occasions. Instead, the company sent legal representatives, a move the committee rejected,” he noted.
He added that the hearing was postponed several times to accommodate Binance’s requests, but Teng and other top executives never attended.
Onwusibe said he later discovered, through a blog post by Teng on May 7, 2024, that Binance executives were also under investigation by Nigerian security agencies, including the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
Teng’s post, titled “Tigran Gambaryan is innocent and must be released”, contained claims that Onwusibe described as defamatory. As a result, he instructed his lawyer, Nnamdi Nwokocha, to demand an apology and damages from Binance.
Binance reportedly refused to retract the statements or offer compensation, leading Onwusibe to file a lawsuit against the company and Teng at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on September 18, 2024. He is seeking an apology, a retraction, and $3 billion in damages. The case, first heard on January 22, 2025, is set to continue on February 19.
Onwusibe dismissed Gambaryan’s latest claims, calling them “a desperate attempt by Binance to deflect attention from its own legal troubles.” He insisted that neither he nor his committee coordinated with Nigerian security agencies in their investigation of Binance.
He further denied that agencies such as the DSS, ONSA, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit were involved in the legislative probe.
Beyond rejecting the allegations, Onwusibe pointed to Binance’s history of legal issues in multiple countries. He noted that the company’s founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison in the U.S. for financial crimes, including money laundering. He also mentioned that Binance had faced record fines in the U.S., Canada, India, and Uzbekistan for violating anti-money laundering and financial regulations.
The lawmaker said the public backlash in Nigeria had been especially painful, as many people quickly believed Binance’s version of events without examining the facts. He expressed concern that the accusations had not only harmed his reputation but had also been used to mock his political party, the Labour Party, and his Igbo ethnic group.
As the controversy continues, both Binance and the Nigerian lawmakers remain firm in their positions, with the legal battle set to play out i
n court in the coming weeks.
