U.S. lawmakers urge embassy in Nigeria to seek humanitarian release of Binance executive

LAGOS (Reuters) - Two U.S. lawmakers have urged the United States embassy in Nigeria to seek the release of jailed Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan on humanitarian grounds because he is in poor health.

Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crimes compliance for Binance has been in custody since February facing money laundering charges. Tax evasion charges against him and another official who left Nigeria in March were dropped last week.

French Hill, a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat, visited Gambaryan in Abuja's Kuje prison on Thursday during a trip to the West African country.

"We have asked our embassy to advocate for a humanitarian release of Tigran because of the horrible conditions of the prison, his innocence and his health," Hill said in a video he posted on social media site X, alongside Houlahan.

Houlahan said during the prison visit, they found Gambaryan living in difficult conditions and "he was also clearly under a lot of stress and his health is not very good."

Binance has previously said Gambaryan had malaria and pneumonia.

Gambaryan, who denies charges against him, was in court on Friday for the money laundering trial, which was adjourned to July 1.

Nigeria has blamed Binance for its currency woes after cryptocurrency websites became the platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian naira as the country grappled with chronic dollar shortages and its currency fell to a record low.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe, additional reporting by Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by Nick Zieminski)