More than 6.2 billion Kenyan Shillings has been frozen by the High Court of Kenya as a result of suspicions that the funds were acquired through money laundering and card fraud.
The entire sum was spread across over sixty two (62) bank accounts which belonged to four (4) Kenyans as well as Flutterwave.
Among the funds frozen were billions in Equity Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Co-operative Bank, and EcoBank accounts. The freeze occurred after an application was made by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to prevent any withdrawal or transfer, until a petition is filed which will lead to the funds being forfeited to the Kenyan government.
The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) made it known via court filings that their investigations showed that the money was sent under the pretense of payments for services and goods.
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According to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), “That the 1st Respondent’s bank accounts received billions in a suspected scheme of money laundering and the same deposited in different bank accounts in an attempt to conceal or disguise the nature, source, location, disposition or movement of the said funds.”
It added 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.”
The investigators believed that Flutterwave had a total of an equivalent of 5.17 billion Kenyan Shillings spread across twenty nine (29) accounts at Equity Bank, EcoBank and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), in United States (US) Dollars, British Pounds, Euros, and Kenyan Shillings.
According to Flutterwave’s official website the fintech company processes payments on mobile devices, Point of Sale (POS) machines, the Web all over the world, while also providing its payment technology to merchants.
The Kenyan High Court also froze a total of 436 million Kenyan Shillings which belonged to Bagtrip Travels Ltd, as well as 467.1 million Kenyan Shillings belonging to Boxtrip Travels and Tours.
Other accounts which have been affected include Cruz Ride Auto Ltd with 2.4 million Kenyan Shillings, Hupesi Solutions with 1.6 million Kenyan Shillings, and Elivalat Fintech Ltd with 1.16 million Kenyan Shillings.
An account owned by Simon Karanja Ngige has a total of 14 million Kenyan Shillings. Simon Karanja Ngige is a Director at Cruz Ride Auto Ltd. The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) believes that the money was sent from various countries and then sent to local bank accounts which were owned by Flutterwave, before then getting transferred to the six (6) companies. As a result of this belief the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) is cross examining the source of the funds sent to Flutterwave.
Court filings revealed that Flutterwave Payments Technology ltd is owned by Iynoluwa Samuel, Adeleke Christopher, Olugbenga Agboola, and Flutterwave Inc which is registered in the United States (US) with offices at 1323 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco.
Although David Mouko Elizaphan Omaanya who is Kenyan is also listed as a Director, he has zero (0) shares.
It was revealed to the court that between November 2020 till date (2022), Flutterwave has received 12.4 billion Kenyan Shillings in one account at Equity Bank making that another indications of the large sums the fintech company processes.
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The funds from the Equity Bank account were then sent to Rem X Ltd a company owned by Nehikhare Eghosasere and Demuren Olufemi Olukunmi.
Rem X Ltd is reportedly at the middle of another money laundering case which resulted in the court ordering the freeze of a total 5.6 billion Kenyan Shillings in accounts. The decision was made in April of 2022.
According to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) Boxtrip Travel and Tours which is registered by Enyioma Olufemi Madubuike; a Nigerian, received the Dollar equivalent of a total 467.1 million Kenyan Shillings over a period of two (2) days; the 27th of April 2022 and 28th of April 2022 from Flutterwave Payments technology Ltd.
The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) stated that there was no explanation given or documents provided to support the transactions resulting in it believing that the accounts were utilized in the moving of gotten funds.
In the words of the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), “Further investigations established that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the funds are proceeds of crime obtained from illegitimate sources by the respondent which require to be preserved pending the filing and hearing of an intended forfeiture application.”
Bagtrip Travels Ltd received a total of 436 million Kenyan Shillings from Rainbow technology Solutions and Flutterwave between the 28th of April 2022 and the 6th of May 2022. Bagtrip Travels Ltd is owned by Tofunmi Taiwo Soyemi.
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Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) believes that Elivalat Fintech Ltd received the United States (US) Dollar equivalent of 320.8 million Kenyan Shillings between the 4th of November 2020 and the 14th of April 2022. At the time the account was frozen, it had a total balance of 1.16 million Kenyan Shillings. The Directors of the company are Tiwari Simon Adrian, Palliser Ltd and Jackson Mwangi Kamenju who is a Kenyan.
While Flutterwave Payments sent 14.1 billion Kenyan Shillings to Edguru Technology Ltd, only 99.8 million Kenyan Shillings has been affected by the account Freeze. According to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) the Directors of Edguru Technology Ltd are Adaeze Chinenye and Caroline Wanjiku Muchina who are Nigerian and Kenyan respectively.
Hupesi Solutions received a total of 143.3 million Kenyan Shillings. Hupesi Solutions is an online payment solutions company and is owned by Festus Mumo Mutuku who is a Kenyan.
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Of the total amount received by Hupesi Solutions, 54.4 million Kenyan Shillings was sent to Flutterwave Payments and 45.6 million Kenyan Shillings was sent to GC Natural PL.
Although the bank account in question only had 1.6 million Kenyan Shillings as at the time of putting this article together, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) believes that the transactions were carried out in sums below the 1 million Kenyan Shillings mark in order to beat the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK)’s reporting threshold.
On the 6th of June 2022, Cruz Ride Auto Ltd which is registered as a car dealer received a total of 2.4 million Kenyan Shillings from Flutterwave Payments Technology Ltd. However, no explanation was provided for the sum which was eventually sent to Mr. Ngige.
Flutterwave was founded by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2018. It provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.
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