Flutterwave Loses N2.9bn to Hackers, Blames Lagos Commercial Banks

REPORTS have it that ₦2,949,557,867 has been illegally transferred from the accounts of African fintech unicorn, Flutterwave.

The tech giant’s counsel, Albert Onimole, reported the case to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Techcabal reported.

According to Onimole’s letter, the hack on Flutterwave’s accounts occurred about some weeks ago revealing that the said sum was initially transferred to 28 accounts in 63 transactions.

Although the accounts that received the money were listed, the police are yet to freeze the receiving accounts to prevent the money being moved.

According to Flutterwave, some commercial banks allowed the money to be moved to other accounts, widening the money trail.

To investigate the accounts holding the stolen funds across various financial institutions in Nigeria, S.A. Adedesin, Legal Officer, State CID, Panti, Yaba, filed a suit in the Magistrate Court of Lagos to support Flutterwave’s claims.

The suit is between the Commissioner of Police and the affected 28 commercial banks.

While there are no documents to confirm if the court has ruled in favour of Inspector Micheal’s motion, some people have confirmed that their accounts have been frozen in connection to the hack.

Per the motion filed by Adebesin, 107 accounts, including fifth beneficiaries of those accounts, are to be placed on lien/Post-No-Debit (PND).

With the stolen funds distributed across several accounts, which, according to tweets, may or may not have anything to do with the hack, it is not clear at this time who hacked Flutterwave.

Questions about how hackers got past Flutterwave’s security and what this means for the unicorn’s customers remain unanswered. As of press time, Flutterwave hasn’t responded to our questions.