The Company Man: Binance exec detained in Nigeria breaks his silence

Summary

The Company Man: Binance Exec Detained in Nigeria Breaks His Silence

Podcast Information:

• Title: Click Here
• Host/Author: Recorded Future News
• Episode: The Company Man: Binance exec detained in Nigeria breaks his silence
• Release Date: February 11, 2025

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Introduction & Background

In this compelling episode of Click Here, hosts Dina Temple-Raston and Sean Powers delve into the harrowing story of Tigran Gambarian, a high-ranking executive at Binance—the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Tigran, a former IRS financial investigator renowned for his expertise in tracing cryptocurrency transactions, found himself ensnared in a complex geopolitical conflict between Binance and the Nigerian government.

Dina Temple-Raston [04:28]: "Tigran is a legend in this world... They even called him the Bitcoin Wizard."

Tigran's groundbreaking work debunked the myth that cryptocurrency transactions were entirely anonymous, earning him respect and fear in equal measure within both law enforcement circles and the darker corners of the internet.

Detainment in Nigeria

In early 2024, driven by his belief in cryptocurrency's potential to revolutionize financial systems, Tigran transitioned from government service to Binance. His role involved collaborating with global law enforcement to enhance compliance and combat financial crimes within the crypto ecosystem.

In February of the same year, Tigran traveled to Nigeria to engage with top government and law enforcement officials. Nigeria, grappling with severe inflation and economic instability, had seen a surge in cryptocurrency adoption as citizens sought refuge from the depreciating naira. This environment made Nigeria the second-largest market for cryptocurrency adoption globally by 2024.

Nick Fountain [07:01]: "By the time Tigran had arrived last year, their currency, the naira, had been through years of turmoil."

However, what was intended as a series of collaborative meetings quickly turned into a nightmare. At the Nigerian National Security Agency (NSA), Tigran and his colleague Nadeem Anjawala were ambushed with serious allegations against Binance, including currency destabilization, money laundering, and tax evasion.

Sean Powers [09:06]: "We want user records for every single Nigerian user. Until that's done, you can't leave."

Without substantial evidence to back these claims, the Nigerian authorities detained Tigran and Nadeem, effectively holding them as collateral to coerce Binance into compliance with unfavorable terms.

Life in Detention

Initially confined to a safe house with relatively humane conditions, Tigran's situation deteriorated rapidly. The escape of his colleague Nadeem left him isolated and vulnerable. As the months dragged on, Tigran faced harsh realities:

• Health Decline: Contracting malaria, which escalated into pneumonia due to inadequate medical care, left Tigran bedridden and reliant on a wheelchair.

  Sean Powers [17:06]: "I spent my 40th birthday in Nigerian prison. I forgot."

• Psychological Strain: The uncertainty and harsh treatment took a toll on Tigran's mental well-being. His pleas for help became increasingly desperate, encapsulated in a haunting video message recorded in his prison cell.

  Tigran Gambarian [13:39]: "Hello, my name is Sigran Gambarian... Please help." [Recorded at 13:39]

• Isolation: With the Nigerian authorities stripping him of any semblance of dignity, Tigran was left to fend for himself amidst hostile accusations and deteriorating health.

U.S. Government Intervention

The turning point in Tigran's ordeal came when the United States government took notice of the flimsy evidence presented by Nigeria. Unlike the robust case the U.S. had built against Binance CEO Chungpeng Zhao—culminating in a $4.3 billion fine—the Nigerian charges against Tigran were based solely on a photocopy of his business card.

Nick Fountain [19:06]: "In my entire charging records against me, my business card is the only evidence in there."

This glaring lack of evidence prompted the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies to intensify diplomatic pressure. Top-level discussions, including those involving President Joe Biden, were initiated to secure Tigran's release.

Dina Temple-Raston [20:26]: "U.S. officials were told to bring up Tigran at the beginning of every meeting they had with Nigerian officials... all the way to then President Joe Biden."

The coordinated effort highlighted the disparity between U.S. and Nigerian approaches to cryptocurrency regulation and the lengths the U.S. would go to protect its nationals and interests abroad.

Release and Aftermath

After eight agonizing months, compounded by declining health and international pressure, the Nigerian government relented, citing humanitarian reasons for Tigran's release. Binance facilitated his return to the United States, where he continued his role within the company, albeit with his investigative team temporarily reassigned.

Nick Fountain [21:20]: "He spent about eight months in detention. He's still recovering from the medical issues related to getting malaria, and he still works at Binance."

The episode underscores the precarious balance between emerging financial technologies and state sovereignty, illustrating how individuals can become pawns in larger geopolitical games.

Broader Implications

Tigran's experience sheds light on the broader implications of cryptocurrency adoption in unstable economies. While crypto offers an alternative to traditional banking systems plagued by corruption and inefficiency, it also poses challenges to state control over financial systems. Governments, particularly those with fragile economies like Nigeria, may view cryptocurrency as both a lifeline for their citizens and a potential threat to their monetary authority.

Nick Fountain [06:46]: "Crypto can undermine state power, and how that state power fights back."

Notable Quotes

• Tigran Gambarian [00:57]: "Hello, my name is Sigrin Gambierian... I don't know what's going to happen to me after today."

• Sean Powers [17:06]: "I spent my 40th birthday in Nigerian prison. I forgot."

• Tigran Gambarian [18:27]: "This is fucked up. Why can't I use a guy?"

• Unnamed U.S. Official [10:22]: "This is one of the largest penalties we have ever obtained from a corporate defendant in a criminal matter."

Conclusion

"The Company Man: Binance Exec Detained in Nigeria Breaks His Silence" offers a gripping narrative of resilience and the complex interplay between technology, government, and individual agency. Tigran Gambarian's ordeal exemplifies the vulnerabilities faced by those at the intersection of innovative financial platforms and stringent governmental oversight. As cryptocurrency continues to evolve, stories like Tigran's will be pivotal in shaping the future of digital finance and international relations.

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For more in-depth stories on cybersecurity and intelligence, tune into Dena Temple-Raston’s podcast, Click Here, available on all major podcast platforms.

Transcript

[Dena Temple Rastin]

From Recorded Future News and prx, this is Click here. Hey, it's Dena. We have something a little different for you this week. If you're a regular listener of the show, you know we've been reporting on the detention of a Binance executive named Tigrin Gambarian for almost a year. He's a former US Federal agent who found himself trapped between the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and the government of Nigeria. He was released late last year, and a few weeks later, senior supervising producer Sean Powers and I sat down with him for his first audio interview, and we decided to work with NPR's Planet Money to tell his story. Take a listen.

[Sean Powers]

This is Planet Money from npr.

[Nick Fountain]

There is this video that I have not been able to stop thinking about since I first saw it. It's a short video, just 39 seconds long, of a bearded man with a tight haircut, a white T shirt, and a gold chain. And he is filming himself selfie style. But he seems to be holding the phone at this weird angle, as if he's trying to hide it from someone.

[Tigran Gambarian]

Hello, my name is Sigrin Gambierian. I'm the head of financial crime compliance for Binance. I've been detained by the Nigerian government for a month. I don't know what's going to happen to me after today.

[Nick Fountain]

If this is ringing a bell, it first made the rounds last spring.

[Tigran Gambarian]

I've done nothing wrong. I asked the United States government to insist me.

[Sean Powers]

I need your help, guys. I don't know if I'll be able to get out of this without your help.

[Tigran Gambarian]

Please help.

[Nick Fountain]

Then the video just ends. It's haunting. I first heard about this guy and this video from legendary reporter Dina Temple Rastin. Hey, Dina. Hey there, Dina. You've been following this story, the story of Tigran Gambarian, since day one.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Yeah, I knew Tigren. He's a former IRS investigator. He's American, and I had interviewed him for a bunch of stories. So I found out pretty quickly that he'd been detained in Nigeria, and I thought they'd hold him for a couple of weeks. I had no idea that it was going to become such a saga.

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah. And that saga is our episode today. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Nick Fountain.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

And I'm Dena Temple Rastan, the host of Click Here, a cyber and intelligence podcast.

[Nick Fountain]

Tigran's story is about more than one man in a notorious Nigerian prison. It's about how people in places without stable economies have found refuge in cryptocurrency how crypto can undermine state power, and how that state power fights back.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

So today, that story from Tigrin himself. We landed the first recorded interview with him since his release, and now we know all the details of his eight months in captivity and how he got out. Oh, my God, you look great.

I'm so worried you wouldn't look great.

[Sean Powers]

Hey, how you doing?

[Nick Fountain]

He was great.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Good to see you too.

[Matt Galloway]

When was the last time you said, hmm, I never thought about it that way. The Current aims to give you that moment every single day. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and our award winning team brings you stories and conversations to expand your worldview. Sometimes they connect to the news of the day, sometimes to the issues of our time. And you'll hear all kinds of people on the Current, from bestselling authors to maybe your neighbor. Find us wherever you get your podcasts now, including YouTube. I'll talk to you soon.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Let me tell you a little bit about Tigrin Gambarian. He's this Armenian American guy, super smart, really easygoing, the type of person who has a squat rack and a gaming chair at home. And a few weeks ago, I went to visit him at his house about an hour outside of Atlanta. Should we take off shoes?

[Sean Powers]

Are you guys hungry or.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

No, thank you.

[Nick Fountain]

Some backstory. Tigrin made his name working for the irs. He was a special agent there, a financial investigator, and he focused on investigating cryptocurrency and cyber cases.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

And Tigran is a legend in this world. Before him, just about everyone in law enforcement thought crypto transactions were anonymous. Totally untraceable, in fact. That's exactly why criminals in particular seemed to love it. They saw it as a way to commit a crime and leave no fingerprints.

[Nick Fountain]

But Tigran suspected that these transactions were not as anonymous as people thought. So night after night, with his infant daughter on his lap, he stared at long strings of letters and numbers, trying to figure out a way to follow transactions from one place to another. And through just determination, he was able to do it. He was able to trace transactions.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

This completely revolutionized high tech crime fighting. He was involved in just about every crypto related bust OR investigation in the 2010s. AlphaBay, Mt. Gox. Those were him. Silk Road. Yeah, him too. When I was reporting on this and calling around law enforcement circles, people kept telling me Tigran figured out how to track all this. They even called him the Bitcoin Wizard.

[Nick Fountain]

And over the next decade, he became kind of this evangelist for crypto. He believed that if done correctly, crypto could solve a lot of the problems in the financial system and maybe be more transparent than traditional banks. And so in 2021, Tigran decided to leave government and take his talents to the largest cryptocurrency platform in the world, a company called Binance. Binance is what's called an exchange, basically a place to buy or sell crypto. And it had this kind of sketchy reputation as a place for money launderers and criminals.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

He was hired as the global head of intelligence and investigations, which meant working with law enforcement across the world, showing them the ways in which he tracked crypto transactions. So in many ways, his job at Binance wasn't that different than what he was doing at the irs.

[Sean Powers]

I don't handle business. I don't have nothing to do with any products. My whole core duties, which is all I do, is assist law enforcement.

[Nick Fountain]

So officially, Tikrin was hired to help with law enforcement and compliance. But unofficially, he was sort of an ambassador for Binance and for crypto itself. He was there to send the message crypto's wild west days were over. That shady stuff Binance was doing was in the past. Today's Binance is law abiding and we're here to help.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Which is why in February of last year, he found himself in Nigeria. He was there to meet top government and law enforcement officials.

[Sean Powers]

We agreed to go out there, meet with them being, okay, you know what, if you need anything, just to kind of even, you know, go above and beyond and help them out.

[Nick Fountain]

Now, Nigeria as a country has a complicated relationship with crypto. By the time Tigran had arrived last year, their currency, the naira, had been through years of turmoil. They had unpegged the naira from the US dollar. Inflation had been high, like 30% annually. And so people had been buying up crypto as a kind of store of value. Instead of putting savings in a bank, they would buy Bitcoin or Ethereum. In 2024, Nigeria had the second largest cryptocurrency adoption rate in the world.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

For the Nigerian government, the rapid adoption of crypto meant less control. As more people started using Binance to trade naira, the central bank's hold on the value of their currency felt like it was slipping away. And so they were starting to blame crypto for a lot of the country's economic problems.

[Nick Fountain]

Which brings us back to Tigran. Tigran's trip to Nigeria was going to be quick. Just a few days of back to back meetings. He didn't even check a bag.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

The most important Meeting was at the big law enforcement intelligence agency in Nigeria, known as the National Security Agency, or nsa. Tigrin was excited about the meeting, but when he showed up, they're like, oh, just.

[Sean Powers]

Just come in to sit down. They'll. They'll come in in a little bit. We waited for a couple of hours.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Were you worried that you were waiting that long?

[Sean Powers]

It started getting a little weird.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Tegan was there with a colleague named Nadeem Anjawala. Nadeem was younger. He wasn't a former cop. He was more like Binance's business guy for Africa.

[Nick Fountain]

And the two of them were waiting to meet with the head of the NSA to talk through how Binance and Nigeria could work better together. But that meeting never happened. Instead, eventually, a bunch of Nigerian officials filed into the room. None of them were really making eye contact with Tigran or Nadim. And when the meeting did start, Tigran realized it was not what they signed up for.

[Sean Powers]

One of the guys who's actually responsible for this, he comes in, kind of slaps a folder on the table, starts saying, you know, you've, you know, destroyed Nigerian economy.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

The Nigerian authorities told them that Binance had tanked their currency, that they'd laundered money, and that they'd evaded taxes.

[Nick Fountain]

According to Tigran, they basically said, we are not going to let you leave until we are satisfied that Binance is on the up and up. Among other things, they said they wanted Binance to pay those taxes and also some fines. And they said they wanted more control over the platform, including information on Binance's users.

[Sean Powers]

We want user records for every single Nigerian user. Until that's done, you can't leave.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

We reached out to the Nigerian authorities for this story. They declined to comment. What we do know is that the Nigerian government has a history of being quick to find companies and seize their assets. But Binance had no assets to seize or to hold as collateral. In a sense, Tigran and Nadeem became collateral.

[Nick Fountain]

And where might the Nigerian government have gotten the idea of detaining someone from Binance and slapping them with enormous fines?

[Dena Temple Rastin]

We do have some breaking news on a major crypto company. Binance, the CEO.

[Nick Fountain]

Oh, yeah, it was us.

[Unnamed U.S. Official]

The U.S. we are here today to announce that the Justice Department has secured felony guilty pleas from the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

A few months before Tigran was detained in Nigeria, the US Justice Department announced this huge case against Binance. They'd been investigating the company for years, and they announced that they had reached a plea deal with the founder and former CEO, a guy named Chungpeng Zhao, also known as cz. And he and the company agreed to plead guilty to a bunch of federal charges, everything from flouting anti money laundering laws to violating the U.S. bank Secrecy Act. They were fined $4.3 billion.

[Unnamed U.S. Official]

This is one of the largest penalties we have ever obtained from a corporate defendant in a criminal matter.

[Nick Fountain]

The announcement rocked the crypto world. And yeah, it might have planted an idea in the minds of Nigerian officials.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Back in Nigeria, Tigrin and the business guy Nadeem told officials, we're not top finance executives. We can't pay that fine. We can't release that user data. That's way above our pay grade. And Nigerian officials were like, okay, then call your bosses, because until that gets cleared up, we're keeping you here.

[Nick Fountain]

In Nigeria, authorities took them to a safe house in the capital. Apparently, the conditions there weren't all that bad. Tigrin had access to a phone. He could talk to a lawyer. Nadeem convinced the guards to buy satellite TV so they could watch movies. And the food, Tikrin says it was good.

[Sean Powers]

There was a cook in there that was assigned to the house. Nadine was, like, ridiculous the whole time. It was crazy. He would, like, make crazy requests. He kept asking for smoothies. In the morning, the cook would make him two smoothies, like an avocado smoothie and whatever.

[Nick Fountain]

Weeks passed like this. Not much action, a lot of smoothies. Tigran took to push ups and pull ups to stay fit and take the edge off his anxiety. But Nadeem was getting more and more freaked out, and Tigran tried to comfort him.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

And then one day, about a month after they were detained, things took a turn. Tigram went to Nadeem's room.

[Sean Powers]

It was dark, the lights were out, so I went up, knocked on his door. He didn't answer.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

He opened the door.

[Sean Powers]

I was like, nadeem, Nadeem, are you there? No response. I just see, you know, just a mountain of, like, blankets and, like, pillows. And I'm like, there's a foot sticking out from underneath the blanket. And I pulled it off. It was. He stuffed the water bottle inside a sock, put it there, so.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Oh, my God.

[Sean Powers]

Yeah.

[Nick Fountain]

Nadeem had escaped. And Tigran says at this moment, he felt his heart sink. For weeks, he and Nadeem had been in this together. He thought surely Nadeem had at least left an explanation. But when Tigran looked around for a note, he couldn't find one.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

And in this moment, Tigran realized it was going to be just him. All by himself against the government of Nigeria.

[Sean Powers]

Point, I'm like, I'm alone, and so I'm trying to figure out, how do I handle this? What should I do?

[Nick Fountain]

He knew he had, what, minutes before the guards figured out that Nadeem had escaped. And he knew that once that happened, all hell would break loose. At the very least, he'd probably lose access to his phone and the world.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

So he tiptoed out to the courtyard where no one could overhear him, and he pulled out that phone and hit record.

[Tigran Gambarian]

Hello, my name is Seagran Gambierian. I'm the head of financial crime compliance.

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah, this was that haunting video that made the rounds.

[Sean Powers]

I'll be able to get out of.

[Tigran Gambarian]

This without your help. Please help.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Two days after you sent that video, Nigerian authorities started officially charging Tigran with tax evasion. They also said he was complicit in helping Binance launder $35.4 million in illegal transactions and that Binance was operating without a license.

[Nick Fountain]

And once he was arraigned, he was not sent back to the guest house with the satellite TV and the chef. This time, his treatment was much worse.

[Sean Powers]

They treated me like Hannibal lecture when they're transporting me. It was ridiculous. Like, two trucks full of, like, people with rifles. One in the front, one in the back. It was insane.

[Nick Fountain]

The prison he ended up in is infamous. It's called Kuja. It's where Nigeria puts ISIS militants. It's actually one of the largest prisons in Nigeria.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Tigram wasn't put in general population. He wasn't going to be bunking with some ISIS guy. He got his own cell.

[Sean Powers]

It was just a cell with no air conditioning, nothing. Cockroaches. There's a mattress and a ton of cockroaches just everywhere. Just like, infestation.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

By then, the authorities had taken away his phone. But as he looked around him, it looked like all the prisoners had their own phones. And he said, how do I get me one of those? And the first night he was there, he gets an opportunity to buy one.

[Sean Powers]

One of the guard comes in, didn't ask. He just opens the door, sits down on the bed and says, like, I'll sell you a phone for $25,000. I'm like, you know what? He's like, yeah, you're a Binance executive. You're a billionaire. You can afford this. I'm like, I'm sorry, you got the wrong guy. He's like, okay, fine, $5,000. I'm like, no. I'm like, I'm not a billionaire.

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah. It was at this moment that Tigran starts to realize that while he was locked away, the Nigerian government had been painting this picture of him as not only the cause of all of Nigeria's money problems, the inflation, the speculation, but also as a billionaire, an evil one, and a crook. How was Tigrin going to get out of here? That is? After the break.

[Unnamed New Yorker Radio Hour Host]

You come to the New Yorker Radio Hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from, whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney, or the godfather of artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, or some of my extraordinarily well informed colleagues at the New Yorker. So join us every week on the New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Nick Fountain]

Eventually, Tigran did get a phone and he was able to talk with his family. He says he spent hours on video calls with his 10 year old daughter. They'd talk while she played video games late into the night. And on those calls, he says he tried to pretend things were normal, that he was just on a long business trip. But later he found out that she'd known all along. She'd googled him.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Months go by, and even though Tigran's a strong willed person, spending that long in a seedy prison cell started to wear him down. Not just mentally, but physically.

[Sean Powers]

I just can't believe that, like I'm still here, you know, it's, I spent my 40th birthday in Nigerian prison. I forgot.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

And then one morning he wakes up feeling sick.

[Sean Powers]

It feels kind of like food poisoning. So next thing I know, I'm throwing up.

[Nick Fountain]

In May, about three months into his detention, Tigran got malaria. Pretty common in Nigeria. It's treatable. Think like a bad flu, but worse. But if it is not treated, it can be debilitating, even deadly. And Tigran was not getting good care. His malaria led to pneumonia. Eventually he became bedridden and that aggravated some of his back problems. He ended up unable to walk. He needed a wheelchair to get around.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

But according to Tigrin, when he was in public for court appearances, Nigerian officials wouldn't let him use the wheelchair. There were local journalists showing up and he said officials thought pictures of him in a wheelchair would be bad press and show that he wasn't being taken care of.

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah, there's this incredible video from last September. Tigran is in this echoey courthouse hallway with a single crutch. He's struggling to walk and he is getting more and more frustrated because there is a guard in brown fatigues trying to get him into a courtroom.

[Sean Powers]

He was told not to help me. This is fucked up. Why can't I use a guy?

[Nick Fountain]

But when Tigran keeps reaching for the guard's hands, the guy will not help. Every few steps, Tigrin has to rest against the wall.

[Sean Powers]

This is a show.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

This video showing how much Tigran's health had declined made it onto social media and it seemed to shift things in his favor.

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah, but the key thing that turned the tide for Tigrin was when Nigerian prosecutors actually started to lay out their case against him in court filings.

[Sean Powers]

The only evidence that they had in my charging documents was my business card that said I was head of the global and intelligence investigations. In my entire charging records against me, my business card is the only evidence in there.

[Nick Fountain]

Tigran was expecting the Nigerian prosecutors to at least have gone through the motions of building a case against him. But instead, what they had tying Tigrin to these alleged crimes was a single sheet of paper, a photocopy of his business card. And that. That was the moment. It seems that Tigrant's case really changed for the US government.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Yeah, the whole time Tigran had been detained in Nigeria, I'd been calling sources at the Justice Department, the White House, and even one high level State Department official saying, what are you doing to get this guy out? They wouldn't go into detail and they weren't authorized to speak on the record. But I got the impression that they were dragging their feet. Maybe because the US saw Nigeria as a partner. Maybe because at first blush, Nigeria's case against Tigran seemed so much like the US's own case against Binance. But after prosecutors submitted their evidence, it became clear that Nigeria's case against Tigran was nothing like the one the US had brought against cz, the founder of Binance. The US case was years in the making. They had reams of evidence, emails, voice messages, transactions. Nigeria had none of that. And when this came out, US officials seemed to kick it up a notch.

[Nick Fountain]

The US strategy to get Tigran out was, it seems, pretty simple. A full court, diplomatic press. For months, U.S. officials were told to bring up Tigran at the beginning of every meeting they had with Nigerian officials, with the Foreign Minister, the Finance Minister, the National Security Advisor, but also the Minister of Culture, the Minister of Sports. And this strategy went all the way to the top, all the way to then President Joe Biden.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

According to four people close to the case, Biden was scheduled to meet with Nigeria's President Tinubu. That was Last September at the U.N. general assembly in New York. And U.S. officials had signaled that Biden was going to raise Tigran's case in those meetings. And according to my sources, President Tinubu ended up skipping the entire UN General assembly, maybe to avoid the embarrassment of that meeting.

[Nick Fountain]

Tigran's health, meanwhile, continued to deteriorate, and eventually the pressure, or maybe the embarrassment, became too much. The Nigerian government announced they were going to release Tigrin on humanitarian grounds. They said they were just releasing him so that he could get medical care. Binance set a private plane to pick up Tigrin. They flew him to Rome, and then he took a commercial flight back to the U.S. all told, he spent about eight months in detention. He's still recovering from the medical issues related to getting malaria, and he still works at Binance, by the way. We did reach out to Binance for this story, and they did not respond to our questions about Tigran.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

For now, he's no longer running the investigations team. He was away for so long, they brought in someone else to do the job temporarily. Tigran initially went to Nigeria to help the government use crypto for their law enforcement efforts, but that project is pretty much dead. Tigran says Binance doesn't cooperate with Nigerian officials anymore. Neither do many other crypto companies. People in Nigeria are still using crypto, but now it's back to the Wild west, and Tigran is kind of over helping them change that. Would you ever go back to Nigeria?

[Sean Powers]

I don't think my wife would let me go back to Nigeria if I wanted.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

She's right.

[Sean Powers]

Or, like, outside the house.

[Nick Fountain]

By the way, Tigrin and Nadeem haven't spoken since Nadeem escaped. We did reach out to Nadeem. He didn't get back to us. But as for what happened to him, Tigran suspects that he hopped the guest house wall, got an Uber to the airport, and caught the first flight out. He had a second passport.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

In November, Nadeem sent Tigrin an email saying he wanted to explain why he left and why he did what he did. Tigran waited two months to respond, and when he did, he basically said, I don't have that much to say to you. You could have at least given me a heads up. I almost died in that prison.

[Nick Fountain]

When I said that. Dina is a legend. I. We worked in the same office for a few years, and I learned so much from her by osmosis, by watching how she reports. And I'll admit it now to you, Dina, by eavesdropping on your phone. Conversations. If you want to hear more stories like this one, you can check out Dena's show. It's called Click Here. It comes from Recorded Future News.

[Unnamed Recorded Future News Host]

Looking for more of the cybersecurity and intelligence coverage you get on Click Here, Then check out our sister publication the Record from Recorded Future News. You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. Just go to the Record Media.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Today.

Is Tuesday, February 11th, and here are some of the top cyber and intelligence stories of the past week. Apparently, Apple has received a secret order from the UK Office of the Home Secretary mandating the company provide a way to access any user data protected by the company's Advanced Data protection for iCloud. That's according to the Washington Post. The feature, which debuted at the end of 2022, is designed with end to end encryption so only users themselves, not Apple, have access to their data. Complying with the UK demand would require Apple to break the feature by essentially building a backdoor into it. Sources told the Post that rather than install a backdoor, Apple is likely to withdraw support for Advanced Data protection for iCloud in the UK. Last week, apparently, the CIA sent an email containing a list of recent hires to the White House, and they didn't use a classified channel.

[Nick Fountain]

Members of the US Intelligence community are raising concerns after the CIA sent an unclassified email with a list of recently hired employees to the White House.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of new hires. They're all still on probation at the agency, so are a little easier to dismiss. They include a roster of young analysts and operatives who have been hired specifically to focus on China, and their identities are usually secret because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.

[Nick Fountain]

They steal our intellectual property, they steal our personal data. We've seen that with Huawei, we've seen it with TikTok, and now we've seen it with Deepseek.

[Dena Temple Rastin]

Is China using the AI platform Deepseek to vacuum up data? That's the concern from Congress last week as members sought to take the AI platform down. New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer and Illinois Republican Darren LaHood introduced a bill that would ban the Chinese chatgpt rival Deep Seik from any federal devices. Gottheimer warned that there's deeply disturbing evidence that China is using Deepseek to to steal sensitive data from US citizens. Italy, Australia, the Netherlands and South Korea have already banned the platform. The governor of New York also banned it from government devices. Another concern? There are so few guardrails on deepsea that cybersecurity experts say there's nothing to stop hackers from using the app to create malware and other malicious tools to launch a cyberattack. Representative LaHood warns that the tech arms race is is not one the US can afford to lose and finally, there's a spoon in the road. Elon Musk's now infamous email to federal employees with the subject line Fork in the Road has inspired a new kind of protest.

Employees in the division then rained down spoon emojis. Spoon emojis. In the chat that accompanied the video meeting, which was watched by more than.

600 people last week, a former Tesla engineer named Thomas Shedd met with the staff from the Technology Transformation Services at the gsa and he made clear that the administration saw them as potentially expendable. So Musk's team is encouraging TTS employees to take the administration up on its early retirement offer. TTS employees instead filled the chat with spoon emojis.

How about fork you?

Union leaders are encouraging employees to ignore the offer, as its legitimacy is still being determined. Today's episode was produced by Sean Powers, Megan Dietry, Erica Gaeda, Zach Hirsch and me, Dina Temple Reston. It was edited by Karen Duffin, Fact Checked by Darren Ancrum, and contains original music by Ben Livingston with some other music from Blue Dot sessions. Our staff writer is Lucas Riley and our illustrator is Megan Goff. Special thanks to Nick Fountain, Jess Jiang, and Emma Peaslee of the Planet Money Team for working with us on the story this week. Click Here is a production of Recorded Future News and prx. Tune in on Friday for Mic Drop, which features our favorite interview of the week. We'll see you then.

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