A Kenyan High Court has reportedly granted the Asset Recovery Agency’s (ARA) request to drop its final lawsuit against fast rising fintech brand, Flutterwave.
The move follows the court’s denial of the anti-money laundering agency’s request to withdraw its second lawsuit against the fintech in July 2023.The agency had froze over $3 million in August 2022 belonging to Flutterwave, Hupesi Solutions, and Adguru Technology Limited over allegations of money laundering and fraudulent activityARA withdrew the case after more research showed that Flutterwave was not engaged in any illegal activity.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday the court rebuked the ARA for taking the company to court without proper investigation, describing the action as reckless and inappropriate. The judgement now gives the company unhindered access to contribute to Kenya’s fintech sector without any legal uncertainties and put to an end the scrutiny of Flutterwave’s accounts in Kenya.
The judge went on to state that the withdrawal was contingent upon the director of the agency and the investigator bearing “solely and personally” all future civil or tortious liabilities rather than the use of public funds.“This is given the negligent, reckless, careless and rash manner in which this case was investigated, and these proceedings were instituted and driven,” he said.
ARA was investigating the companies at the time for potential money laundering because it thought they were moving criminal proceeds and using credit card fraud but later dropped its initial lawsuit against the businesses in February 2023, allowing them to access the frozen funds. It released $52.5 million to Flutterwave which were hitherto frozen in July 2022.
The country also intends to release the frozen $3 million belonging to Flutterwave and its co-accused, Adguru and Hupesi Solutions.
Flutterwave had announced in April 2023 that it would establish its primary operations station in Nairobi for the East African market and later released plans in September to invest $50 million in Kenya once it gets a licence.
Philips Babatunde