Flutterwave, the African fintech unicorn, had requested a court order to freeze 170 accounts across 27 commercial banks in Nigeria. The motion was granted by the Magistrate Court of Lagos (Yaba Magisterial District sitting at Yaba).
The reason for Flutterwave Court Order
The reason for the request, according to Flutterwave, was that the accounts were beneficiaries of an illegal transfer of funds that took place on February 19, 2023.
The primary beneficiary of the monies, Damilola Williams, said he received ₦1.6 billion ($3.4 million) from William Atong Chen for the sale of USDT. However, Flutterwave insists that there was no breach.
In a bid to clear his name, Williams willingly went to the Police State Criminal Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos (the police station Flutterwave reported the illegal transfer of funds on February 19, 2023) on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. However, Williams along with four others — first beneficiaries and second beneficiaries — were detained by the police until Friday, March 31, 2023, when they were let go on bail.
According to Williams, “Nigeria police and EFCC detained beneficiaries on Flutterwave’s behalf.”
Also read: Flutterwave Denies Being Breached Amid Legal Crisis
New ₦450 million ($677,559) breach?
Some sources claim that Flutterwave has been breached multiple times since the first one was reported on March 5, 2023. While the details of this new breach aren’t clear, beneficiaries and other sources, claim that there was a ₦200 million ($434,470) and ₦250 million ($543,088) sale of cryptocurrency to a Chinese merchant.
A fourth beneficiary, Samuel Johnson, who received payment for crypto assets from Williams, said,
“Since the first court petition went viral, they (Flutterwave and banks) stopped going to court even after they (Flutterwave) were breached multiple times. All they do is set EFCC on merchants, and banks lock the accounts without a court order, just a mail from Flutterwave through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS).”
He also shared evidence of new large transactions where the receiving parties were paid directly from Flutterwave. One of those receiving parties is crypto trader, Abiodun Ajayi.
Ajayi’s story is similar to Williams’. He sold USDT to a Chinese customer for naira, and like Williams, he has been in business with this customer for years. He told Techpoint Africa that the transaction started on March 21 and ended on March 22, 2023. He said the total amount of USDT sold was around ₦200 million. However, by March 22, 2023, his account was frozen.
According to Ajayi, he had no idea why his account was frozen, and his bank didn’t tell him either.
“I actually didn’t know, but I know that Flutterwave went to the police to report that accounts should be frozen. The court order also states that people who received money from their (Flutterwave) accounts conspired with the hackers who hacked their accounts, which made police detain people who received funds from their accounts.”
Just like Williams, Ajayi also went to the police at Panti, Yaba on March 30, 2023, to set the record straight but he was also detained and had to pay ₦200,000 to get bail. According to him, he went to Lagos to attend a meeting between Flutterwave, banks, and the police since his account was also frozen as a result of a Flutterwave transfer.
Follow techkudi.com for more
