ep. Ginger Onwusibe, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, has denied allegations by Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, who claimed that Onwusibe and two other lawmakers demanded a $150 million bribe to drop financial crime charges.
Gambaryan, who was detained by Nigerian authorities in December 2023 and later released in October 2024, made the accusations on his verified X handle on February 14, 2025. He alleged that Onwusibe, Rep. Philip Agbese, and Rep. Peter Akpanke staged a fake House of Representatives meeting and asked for the bribe in cryptocurrency.
Onwusibe strongly denied the claims, calling them false, malicious, and defamatory. He stated that the Committee on Anti-Corruption launched its investigation into Binance based on a petition alleging financial crimes that threatened Nigeria’s economy. He clarified that Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, repeatedly failed to appear before the committee, despite being invited multiple times.
Onwusibe revealed that he has already sued Binance and Teng for $3 billion in damages over earlier defamatory claims. The lawsuit, filed in September 2024, is set to resume on February 19, 2025.
He dismissed Gambaryan’s allegations as an attempt to divert attention from Binance’s legal troubles, highlighting the company’s history of financial crimes and regulatory violations in multiple countries. He also expressed disappointment that many Nigerians have accepted Binance’s narrative without verifying the facts, leading to personal attacks on him, his political party (Labour Party), and his ethnic group.
