By Promise Eze
Nigerian Fintech company, Flutterwave, has reportedly lost a huge sum of N2.9 billion to hackers.
Techpoint Africa reports that the incident happened in early February, 2023. According to documents seen by the publication, ₦2,949,557,867 has been illegally transferred from the accounts of African fintech unicorn, Flutterwave.
On February 19, 2023, Flutterwave’s legal counsel, Albert Onimole, reported the case to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos.
It was said that the money was initially transferred to 28 accounts in 63 transactions. While the incident was reported to the police on February 13, 2023, with the list of accounts that had received the money, the police could not freeze the funds.
According to Flutterwave, some commercial banks allowed the money to be moved to other accounts, widening the money trail. To investigate accounts holding the st%len funds across various financial institutions in Nigeria, S.A. Adedesin, Legal Officer, State CID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, filed a suit in the Magistrate Court of Lagos (Yaba Magisterial District sitting at Yaba) to support Flutterwave’s claims.
Per the motion filed by Adebesin, 107 accounts, including fifth beneficiaries of those accounts, are to be placed on lien/Post-No-Debit (PND).
The suit is between the commissioner of police and the following financial institutions: Access Bank, Providus Bank, Union Bank, Keystone Bank, PalmPay, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Kuda Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), United Bank for Africa (UBA), Polaris Bank, Wema Bank, Union Bank, Sterling Bank, Ecobank, Paycom, Fidelity Bank, Eyowo, Stanbic IBTC Bank, OPay, VFD Microfinance Bank, Carbon, Moniepoint, Al-Hayat Microfinance Bank, PiggyVest and Nomba (previously Kudi).
However, some customers of some of the financial institutions claimed that their accounts had been frozen in relation to the incident.
Questions about how hackers got past Flutterwave’s security and what this means for the unicorn’s customers remain unanswered.
