Flutterwave was not hacked and no user lost any funds, CEO says
On Sunday, multiple media reports said hackers robbed Flutterwave of over $US2.9 billion ($6.3 million). According to Techpoint Africa, which first reported the incident, ₦2,949,557,867 was illegally transferred from the account of the Nigerian fintech company.
Amid these claims, Yewande Akomolafe-Kalu, Flutterwave’s head of branding and storytelling, said “Flutterwave has not been hacked”. However, she noted that one seller’s account was compromised, but “…no user lost any funds.”
“During a routine check of our transaction monitoring system, we identified an unusual trend of transactions on certain users’ profiles. Our team immediately initiated a review (in line with our standard operating procedure), which revealed that some users who had not enabled any of our recommended security settings may have been sensitive,” said Yewande Akomolafe-Kalu, Head of Branding and Storytelling at Flutterwave, in a statement seen by Benjamindada.com.
According to media reports, Flutterwave is seeking to freeze accounts where some of the money was transferred, and a proposal to freeze accounts in 27 financial institutions in Nigeria, including Access Bank, Kuda, Zenith Bank and OPay, has been submitted, per Techpoint Africa.
However, Akomolafe-Kalu said that “…no user lost any funds and we are proud of the fact that our security measures were able to resolve the issue before any harm could be done to our users. We are working with other financial services. institutions.” and law enforcement agencies to keep our ecosystem safe and secure.”
This is contrary to a letter sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, on February 19, 2023, by a Flutterwave lawyer, Albert Onimole, requesting the assistance of the police to recover the “stolen the funds”, according to Techpoint Africa’s research.
This comes a few days after the Kenyan Assets Recovery Agency formally withdrew its money laundering charges against Flutterwave, freeing up KSh6.6 billion (~$51 million) that was frozen in the company’s account. The Nigeria-founded fintech says it has continued to take steps to strengthen its risk and governance and recently hired Emmanuel Efenure from Mastercard, as VP and Head of Risk for Africa.
Recall that in May 2022, an online gambling company, 86fb/86z claimed that “[Flutterwave] maliciously froze [its] funds and intend to take the funds as their own and extort [the company] by cooperating with the local police”. Flutterwave denied the allegations that “some sellers sent transactions on behalf of 86FB/86Z … without approval or authorization.” According to the fintech, the sellers involved were suspended from using the platform and all funds on due to these merchants was settled.
Editor’s Note:
- This is a developing story, it will be updated with more details.
- We edited this report to reflect Flutterwave’s official and published statement (March 6, 2023)
