Statement for the Record - delivered on April 30th 2024

Thank you, Subcommittee Chairman Mast and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for hosting this very important roundtable discussion. Although I am unable to attend in person today, I am thankful for the chance to share my story. By doing so, I hope we can progress toward correcting a grave injustice.

I want to start by acknowledging the strength and courage of the other families here today, whether in person or otherwise. We are members of an exclusive and unwanted club: the loved ones of those held hostage abroad. As wives, daughters, husbands, sons, fathers, and mothers, we yearn for the day we can be reunited with our loved ones and restore the wholeness that was taken from us. I understand your plight and will think of you and your loved ones every day, hoping and praying for their swift return.

My husband and the father of our two young children, Tigran Gambaryan, has been in Nigerian custody for 65 days—the longest two months of our lives. On February 25th, he landed in Abuja at the Nigerian government's request for financial compliance policy meetings with government officials. This is what Tigran does - he helps countries to navigate the notoriously prickly world of financial crime compliance. He spends his days investigating and pursuing criminal activity on the Binance cryptocurrency platform. However, 24 hours after his arrival, he was arrested and detained without charge or explanation.

It took over two weeks for the Nigerian government to fabricate tax-related charges against Tigran and his employer, Binance. I cannot speak for the company, but the charges against Tigran are utterly baseless. It seems as though he was lured to the country under false pretenses, only to be arrested due to some vendetta against his employer. And now my whole family is being caught in the crossfire.

Today, my husband sits in the notorious Kuje prison - a place that has held militants from the Islamic State and Boko Haram.

Ironically, Tigran spent more than a decade as a Special Agent for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), investigating issues involving national security, terrorism financing, identity theft, distribution of child pornography, tax evasion, and more. He is deeply committed to doing the right thing and has dedicated his life to doing so. To see my husband, who is by nature a person of goodwill and strong moral character, be used as a bargaining chip by the Nigerian government is devastating.

The United States cannot afford to remain passive while one of its citizens suffers tremendously in the name of geopolitical gamesmanship. Tigran has served this country with distinction and I am asking you now to repay that service.

I have exhausted nearly every avenue—contacting representatives, the Department of State, and even the Nigerian government. I have called more people in the last two months than I have in my entire life. I am trying my best to push the right buttons and pull the right levers so that we can correct this injustice my husband is going through. I hope that this plea will be the catalyst for action.

For over two months we have learned to live life as a family of three. This is by far the longest my children have gone without seeing their father. They ask me daily when he will be home, and every day I summon all my strength to give them a hopeful answer.

I sincerely hope that this statement will not need to be updated in the future because that would mean that our efforts to bring my beloved husband home have not been successful.

Thank you for your time and for your dedication to resolving this nightmare.