The Kenyan High Court on Tuesday ordered the seizure of $3.3 million belonging to Nigerian financial technology company, Flutterwave.
Justice Grace Nzioka gave the order while ruling on an application filed by Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) against the Nigerian fintech company.
ARA had approached the court to prevent Flutterwave from transferring or withdrawing the funds in the accounts until the conclusion of an investigation into the company’s operation.
The money is kept in 22 accounts – two in United Bank for Africa (UBA), one in Access Bank, and 19 in Safaricom M-Pesa paybill numbers.
The breakdown of the money revealed the following: two UBA accounts have Sh110 million ($916,136.99) and Sh66.7 million ($556,622) while Access Bank has Sh29.1 million ($242,405.54).
The M-Pesa contains Sh14.5 million ($120,784.34), Sh112 million ($932,870.58), and Sh68 million ($566,308.03) respectively.
In her ruling, Justice Nzioka said: “A preservation order be, and is hereby issued prohibiting 1st respondent or his agents or representative from transacting, withdrawing, transferring, using any other dealings in respect to the money held in the account.”
Flutterwave is also involved in another case with some companies, leading to blocking of 62 bank accounts consisting of Sh6.2 billion ($59.2 million) by a separate court in the East African country.
The Central Bank of Kenya had recently declared that Flutterwave lacked the license to operate in the country.
The Kenyan apex bank described Flutterwave’s operation as illegal after some transactions involving the company’s accounts were linked to credit card frauds and other financial infractions.
Flutterwave had since denied the allegations.
