Flutterwave, Africa’s biggest fintech firm has completely denied allegations of fraud in recent reports from Kenya, saying they are “completely misleading”.
In July, Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) got a court order to freeze 56 bank accounts which seven companies had used to allegedly launder about $59.2 million. Fifty-two of the bank accounts—holding that money belonged to Flutterwave.
Just this week, a Kenya court has reportedly frozen an additional US$3.3 million in three bank accounts and 19 Safaricom M-Pesa wallets belonging to Flutterwave, over similar allegations plus chargeback, reversal and refunds fraud.
Meanwhile, Flutterwave was also accused of having no records of providing merchant services in Kenya because it was operating a payment service platform without authorisation from the central bank of Kenya (CBK), a claim which the CBK itself confirmed.
The company was subsequently stopped from operating in Kenya.
But in a response to Techgh24, following the recent incident, Flutterwave said “Recent reports regarding Flutterwave and Kenya are completely misleading. There have been no charges brought by any agency in Kenya against the company, its staff, or directors.”
They explained that the stories circulating go further to make reference to card fraud through chargebacks, refunds, and reversals, which would not be applicable in reference to M-PESA paybill accounts.
Flutterwave also said “From the start of this process, we have been cooperating fully with the Assets and Recovery Agency in its review and we are providing regulators with complete transparency into our business operations, which reflect our adherence to global best practices.We are confident that they will find Flutterwave is operating in full accordance with the law.”
Flutterwave is Africa’s biggest fintech Unicom valued at $3 billion. It is currently working on going for an IPO on NASDAQ to raise funds for expansion across Africa with cross-border payments.
