A Kenyan court has frozen KES400.6 million ($3.3 million) in accounts belonging to Nigerian payment company, Flutterwave, over allegations of money laundering and card fraud.
The court granted the Asset Recovery Agency’s (ARA) application on August 25 to prevent Flutterwave from transferring or withdrawing the funds in three bank accounts, including two in UBA and one in Access Bank; and 19 Safaricom M-Pesa paybill numbers.
This recent freeze emanates from the case in July when the Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) got a court order to freeze 56 bank accounts which seven companies had used to launder KES7 billion (~$59.2 million). Fifty-two of the bank accounts—holding KES7 billion—belonged to Flutterwave.
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At the time, the ARA alleged that Flutterwave had no records of providing merchant services in Kenya. It also claimed that fintech was operating a payment service platform without authorisation from the central bank of Kenya (CBK), a claim which the CBK itself confirmed.
The CBK went further to order Kenyan commercial banks, microfinance banks, and mortgage finance companies to immediately end their partnerships with fintech unicorns, Flutterwave.
In this latest case, the ARA filings revealed that in one of Flutterwave’s UBA bank accounts, debits amounting to KES136 million included chargebacks, reversals, and refunds which indicated that they were being used for card fraud. The agency also said the conversion of dollars into shillings in that account, in a transaction worth KES231 million, pointed to “a scheme of layering and intermingling”.
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The court froze funds worth KES400.6 million ($3.3 million) across three banks including UBA, Access Bank, and Safaricom M-Pesa.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry