The wife of Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Binance executive at the center of the squabble with Nigerian authorities, Elahe, last week told The Sunday Times, UK, that although her husband’s movement was largely restricted, she was aware that he was being treated well and was comfortable.
Anjarwalla was said to have taken only an overnight luggage when he flew to Nigeria late last month, leaving his wife and 11-month-old son at home and was planning to return home after a day of business meetings.
Anjarwalla, 37, and an American colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, 39, were under detention in a guarded house, according to the Sunday Times report.
The Binance’s Regional Manager for Africa, and Gambaryan, its head of financial crime compliance, flew to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on February 25 and reportedly held meetings the next day with officials from the central bank and the securities regulator, which seemed to go well, before they were escorted back to their hotel.
“Then things took a menacing turn. The men were told to pack their belongings and taken to a ‘guest house’ run by the National Security Organisation. A Nigerian court had ordered their detention for two weeks pending an investigation…They are allowed to use phones occasionally, but only in the presence of guards,” the report added.
Elahe, 34, said at their home in Nairobi, Kenya, while defending her husband, that both Binance executives had nothing to do with the declining value of the local currency.
“I’m no expert on the Nigerian economy but Nadeem and Tigran have nothing to do with the freefall of the currency…There is food, they seem comfortable and looked after, for which I am grateful, but their movements are very restricted.
“They’re not allowed to leave the house, for example,” Elahe said, noting that she was worried about her husband’s health after learning — though not from him, that he had requested treatment for suspected malaria.
Anjarwalla worked previously for a venture capital company and was general manager of Uber Eats in Kenya. He attended exclusive educational establishments, including Rugby school in Warwickshire, Oxford University and Stanford in the United States. His wife went to Sevenoaks School in Kent and also to Stanford before going to work at the Boston Consulting Group, an American management consultancy.
During the interview, she worried that he may miss the first birthday of their son, who was born in London, where the couple have a flat in Paddington.
“I try to give Nadeem the chance to have one-to-one chats with him which tend to be a lot of fun and games. He’ll ask ‘what noise does an elephant make, what noise does a lion make?’ He plays peekaboo games,” she added.
Her husband has received two British consular visits. However, both were conducted in the presence of Nigerian authorities, she complained. “He has not been able to have a private and open conversation with consular staff,” she said, expressing frustration by the seeming indifference of the British government to her husband’s plight.
It was two weeks until she received a phone call from the Foreign Office “unprompted”. “That’s been really quite frustrating. As a family member waiting to hear what’s happening you’d want more proactive communication and it hasn’t been as forthcoming as I would have thought,” she said. (Thisday)
