President of the United States, Joe Biden, has thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian government for dropping the criminal charges against Head of Financial Crimes Compliance at Binance, Tigran Gambaryan. 

Gambaryan, a US citizen, was arrested on a business trip to Nigeria in February and charged with his company for laundering $35.4m and tax evasion, which they denied.

This followed the escape from custody of his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan national who was Binance’s Africa regional manager, and had been arrested in Nigeria alongside Gambaryan.

But the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week announced that it had withdrawn the money laundering charges against Tigran Gambaryan to allow him to get medical treatment outside the country.

However, to express gratitude on the development and a number of other matters of mutual interest, President Biden called President Tinubu at about 4pm today (Tuesday) and held a conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes. 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, who disclosed this to journalists at the State House, Abuja, said discussions centered around the recent discharge of Gambaryan and other diplomatic issues. 

The Minister said Biden expressed support for Nigeria’ quest to get a permanent seat status on the United Nations Security Council, especially with the country’s leadership roles in Africa and peace-keeping efforts and sacrifices across the globe.

According to Tuggar: “The call was about the collaboration between the two countries with regards to law enforcement and law enforcement agencies as well as the release of one of the suspects of the crypto currency exchange company that you are all aware of. 
“In response, President Tinubu also thanked him and the US for the partnership and collaboration in numerous areas, and also discussed the issue of collaboration with regards to security in Africa, in particular West Africa. 

“President Biden equally assured that this is a partnership that will continue and he stated, as a matter of fact, not more than not just once, but at least twice, that the future of the world resides in Africa, which is why it was important for this partnership to continue. 

“The two leaders also discussed the issue of the permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council, and President Biden once again assured that the United States is committed to seeing Africa having two permanent seats and also reiterated that he does not see any reason why one of those seats should not belong to Nigeria, given its position in Africa, its stature and importance.”