Court adjourns ruling on Binance Chief’s fresh bail request till October 9‬

Abdullateef Fowewe

The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned its ruling on a fresh bail application filed by the top executive of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Tigran Gambaryan until Wednesday, October 9.

Gambaryan, along with Binance Holdings Limited and another executive Nadeem Anjarwalla, is facing money laundering charges brought by the federal government.

Gambaryan, the second defendant is facing criminal prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC alongside the company on a five-count charge, bordering on tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering to the tune of $34,400,000.

The defence counsel, Mark Mordi, SAN, in a statement by the EFCC on Thursday, had at the resumed sitting prayed to the court in a fresh bail application to admit Gambaryan to bail on liberal terms for six weeks to enable him to take reasonable maintenance of the defendant alleged failing health, arguing that even though the prosecution objects, exhibits, including the medical reports show that his client has a serious health issue and needed urgent medical care, which cannot be adequately managed in Nigeria.

Nevertheless, the prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, opposed the fresh bail application with a 28-paragraph counter-affidavit alongside six exhibits which established that Gambaryan was healthy, having been adequately taken care of in good Nigerian hospitals.

Iheanacho quoted saying, “My lord you will see that the responses from the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) as well as the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) show that the second defendant has been receiving very adequate medical treatment. He has been seen by different medical specialists from the teaching hospital in Gwagwalada. He was taken to Nizamiye Hospital Ltd. He was again taken to the State House Annex Clinic which his counsel even described as amongst the best in Nigeria.

“My noble lord will see from the exhibit attached that at the State House Clinic, he was seen by different specialists and different medical evaluations and treatments were carried out on him. Unfortunately, the report shows that he refused the treatment, medication, and food offered to him at the medical clinic so as to force himself out of the facility. It was his stubbornness that made the clinic discharge and returned him to the NCS.

“These reports show that the second defendant is healthy and receiving proper medical attention. My noble lord, you can take a horse to the stream, but you cannot force it to drink water. I also urge my noble lord to take judicial notice of the fact that defendants in high-profile offences in Nigeria usually develop sudden sickness in a bid to truncate trial.”

However, the prosecution’s counsel who supported his status with Section 124(1) (a) of the Evidence Act 2011 and the Supreme Court decision in Joshua Dariye vs FRN also drew the attention of the court to the defendant’s appeal against his earlier bail denial by the trial court.

He said, “It is, therefore, an abuse of court process for the second defendant to still be arguing bail again.

“We therefore urge my lord to dismiss and refuse this application.”

After listening to both counsels, Justice Nwite adjourned the matter till Wednesday, October 9, 2024, to rule on the fresh bail application and continuation of the trial.