The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday urged Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court Abuja to deny the bail application of the detained Binance Holdings Limited’s executive, Tigran Gambaryan.
Gambaryan who has been in custody for more than 50 days according to his counsel, Mark Mordi (SAN), claimed that he deserves bail.
He argued further that the prosecution could not prove that his client posed a flight risk.
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He said the claim that his client was planning to escape from the country was false and unreliable information based on hearsay and inadmissible evidence.
The lawyer claimed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is only holding on to his client because it wants to use him as leverage to obtain information from his employer.
The EFCC on its part, asked the court to not only deny the defendant bail but move him from Kuje prison where he is currently being detained to the EFCC custody so that he doesn’t escape.
EFCC counsel, Emeka Iheanacho, informed the court that the commission got information that the defendant posed flight risk just like his colleague, the third defendant who absconded.
After listening to both parties, Justice Nwite adjourned the matter till May 17 for a ruling.
READ ALSO: EFCC Arrests Ex-Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, Over Alleged N8Billion Fraud
Gambaryan, his company, Binance Holdings Limited and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a fellow Binance top executive currently on the run were accused by the EFCC of having allegedly committed an offence contrary to Section 21 (a) and punishable under Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, among others.
All three defendants in the case were said to have conspired amongst themselves to conceal the origin of the financial proceeds of their alleged unlawful activities in Nigeria.
The duo (Gambaryan and Anjarwalla) were arrested and detained by the Federal Government over the alleged involvement of their firm in money laundering and terrorism financing.
However, Anjarwalla fled.
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