Nigerian fintech and African unicorn Flutterwave have been cleared of money laundering allegations leveled against it by the Kenyan Asset Recovery Agency (ARA).
The withdrawal of the charges by a Kenyan high court was verified and revealed by a lawyer representing Flutterwave Robert Gitau.
About seven months ago, Flutterwave had its bank accounts closed following a court order by a Kenyan high court that accused the Fintech giant and some companies of money laundering and card fraud which violated the country’s anti-corruption laws.
Flutterwave alone had its accounts frozen to the tune of $56.7 million (6.7 billion Kenyan Shillings) by Kenya’s asset recovery agency.
According to the court filing, Flutterwave 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 settlements to merchants.
This forced the Central Bank of Kenya to send out a circular to all financial institutions in partnership with Flutterwave to cease working with the fintech firm.
Reacting to the allegations, Flutterwave released a statement stating that such claims were false. The company wrote, “financial improprieties involving the company in Kenta are entirely false, and we have the records to verify things”.
Flutterwave further disclosed that it maintains the highest regulatory standards and is proactive in engagements with regulatory bodies to stay compliant.
Valued at $3 billion in its last funding round, Investors King understands that the fraud and laundering accusations, as well as internal scandals that rocked the Fintech giant, stalled its IPO offering.
This spurred Flutterwave to hire Oneal Bhambani, Ex-America Express as CFO, and also Gurbhej Dhillon, an Ex-Goldman Sachs as CTO, which an analyst believed that such an appointment was necessary as most of the scandals that rocked the firm were financial and an experienced CFO would have prevented or at least controlled it better.
Meanwhile, on January 11, 2023, Investors King reported that Flutterwave is currently in talks to acquire Railsr, a prominent British fintech company, following the impactation of inflationary pressures.