A Kenyan High Court has frozen 56 bank accounts belonging to Flutterwave Payment Technology Limited and other businesses connected with Nigerian nationals over money laundering allegations.
Other companies affected, according to a report by The Star, are Boxtrip Travel And Tours Limited, Bagtrip Travel Limited, Elivalat Fintech Limited, Adguru Technology Limited, Hupesi Solutions and Cruz Ride Auto Limited.
The accounts involved are in dollars, pound sterling, euros and Kenya shillings with a total holding of Sh7 billion suspected to be proceeds of money laundering by foreign nationals.
The orders, to be effective for 90 days, were issued after the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) told the court that the accounts of the targeted companies were used as conduits for money laundering under the cover of providing merchant services.
According to the court documents, Flutterwave was registered on February 23, 2017, with Olugbenga Agboola and David Mouko (a Kenyan) as directors.
A report said the company had 29 bank accounts with Guaranty Trust Bank, 17 with Equity Bank and six with Ecobank.
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According to ARA, the company’s account received billions of shillings and deposited the same in different bank accounts in an attempt to conceal the nature, source or movement of the funds.
“Investigations established that the bank accounts operations had suspicious activities where funds could be received from specific foreign entities which raised suspicion. The funds were then transferred to related accounts as opposed to settlement to merchants,” the agency reportedly said.
In an affidavit, Isaac Nakitare, an investigator with the agency said the team obtained orders on April 4 to search and inspect the company’s accounts to establish a money laundering case.
He disclosed that when he obtained the orders, the accounts at Guaranty Trust Bank belonging to Flutterwave had a balance of Sh5.3 billion while Sh1.4 billion was in another one held in Equity Bank.
The Agency argued that Flutterwave was concealing the nature of its business by providing a payment service platform without authorisation from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) as required by the payment system act.
“If indeed the Flutterwave was providing merchant services, there was no evidence of retail transactions from customers paying for goods and services. Further, there is no evidence of settlements to the alleged merchants,” the investigator noted.
The Star reported that the company’s equity account number revealed that at some point in May 2021, it received 185 online card payments all sharing the same bank identification number and that the transactions were done using cards issued by the same bank at the same point on the same day raising suspicion of card fraud.
Between 2020 and 2022, it reported, the account received approximately Sh12 billion and the funds were either transferred to Remix Limited while the rest were invested in a fixed deposit account.
An investigative report had earlier detailed a sordid tale of the African fintech giant and its involvement in identity theft, and securities fraud. Insider trading, arbitrarily inflating and deflating of stock prices and sundry unethical practices.
While Boxtrip has Enyioma Olufemi as its director, Taiwo Soyemi, another Nigerian, is a director with Bagtrip.
For Bagtrip travels, the court froze its account holding of Sh425 million.
For Aduru Technology, its equity holding amounting to Sh100 million was frozen. The directors of the company are listed as Adaeze Okonkwo, and Caroline Muchina, wife to David Muoko who is a director of Flutterwave.
Flutterwave denies money laundering allegations
Flutterwave Payment Technology Limited has however denied allegations of money laundering that led to the freezing of its accounts by a Kenyan court.
“Claims of financial improprieties involving the company in Kenya are entirely false, and we have the records to verify this,” Flutterwave said in a statement.
“We are a financial technology company that maintains the highest regulatory standards in our operations. Our Anti-money laundering (AML) practices and operations are regularly audited by one of the Big four firms. We remain proactive in our engagements with regulatory bodies to continue to stay compliant.”
“We are working to ascertain the motive behind the false claims, and have the records straightened,” Flutterwave said.
Flutterwave noted that it only “collect and pay on behalf of merchants and corporate entities.”
The fintech company explained that “in the process, we earn our fees through a transaction charge, records of which are available and can be verified. As a business, we hold corporate funds to support our operations and provide services to all our customers.
“By facilitating payments for the biggest organizations in the world and everyday businesses, we process significantly large volumes of money and contribute to growing the economy in Kenya, and the rest of Africa.”
Flutterwave said it has a “responsibility to ensure the integrity of the ecosystem and we pledge our commitment to continue working with all stakeholders to uphold this.”
THE GUARDIAN
