Bribery Allegation: Lawmaker Sues Binance Chief for N1b

A member of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, has filed a N1 billion defamation lawsuit against Tigran Gambaryan, an executive at Binance, over allegations that he and two other lawmakers demanded a $150 million bribe. The suit, filed at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja on Monday, claims that Gambaryan’s statements on social media falsely linked Agbese to corruption, damaging his reputation.

The case, registered as FCT/HC/CV/576/2025, seeks a court declaration that the allegations made against Agbese are defamatory, an order restraining Gambaryan from making further claims, and a public retraction of the accusations.

The lawmaker is also demanding N1 billion in general damages and N5 million to cover the cost of the lawsuit. The lawsuit stems from a series of social media posts made by Gambaryan, Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer, in which he alleged that Agbese and two other Nigerian legislators sought to receive a $150 million bribe through cryptocurrency transactions.

MEANWHILE, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Monday began the trial of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, in the alleged tax evasion case filed by the tax agency.

The FIRS presented its first witness, Mbami Shomgwan, Manager of the TaxPromax Technology Department at FIRS, before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The tax agency then amended its lawsuit, stating that Binance allegedly failed to collect and remit various categories of taxes to the federation, particularly Value Added Tax (VAT) and Company Income Tax (CIT), as enshrined in Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007 (amended).

In a new lawsuit filed by FIRS, the cryptocurrency exchange platform was accused of offering services such as cryptocurrency transactions and the remittance and transfer of those assets to Nigerians while failing to deduct the necessary VAT from those operations.

Following a notice from Binance about its appointment of a Nigerian representative, Ayodele Omotilewa, the trial process was initiated after the company’s representative denied the tax evasion allegations.