Kenya Drops Financial Impropriety Case Against Flutterwave

7 months after freezing Flutterwave’s bank accounts, the Kenyan government has dropped its charges of financial impropriety against Flutterwave, one of Africa’s 9 unicorn startups.

This was confirmed by a report by Bloomberg, which got access to a Kenyan High Court document and also verified by Robert Gitau, a lawyer representing Flutterwave.

This is good news for Flutterwave that was rocked by several allegations both at home and abroad in 2022.

Problems in Kenya cropped up in June 2022 when the local Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) accused Flutterwave of money laundering leading the High Court of Kenya to order banks to freeze $40 million in its bank accounts in July 2022.

According to ARA, Flutterwave’s bank account operations raised suspicion with questionable transactions coming in from foreign entities and then being transferred to other accounts instead of settlement to merchants.

Flutterwave however denied the allegations putting out a statement which was captured by various media agencies:

“Claims of financial improprieties involving the company in Kenya are entirely false, and we have the records to verify this. We are a financial technology company that maintains the highest regulatory standards in our operations. Our anti-money laundering 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.”

– FlutterWave

ARA also claimed that Flutterwave was operating its payment platform without proper authorization. This was confirmed by the Central Bank of Kenya in July 2022, when the Governor, Patrick Njoroge, stated that Flutterwave was one of two African fintechs without necessary license to provide remittance or payment services in Kenya.

This revelation was followed by a letter signed by the apex bank’s Deputy Director of Bank Supervision, Matu Mugo, ordering financial institutions in Kenya to stop any dealings with Flutterwave.