Following some recent successes in countries like Kenya where the courts unfroze Flutterwave bank accounts after being frozen for suspicions of money laundering, Flutterwave is now writing to content creators to remove content that was published on Olugbenga Agboola, its founder and Chief Executive.
In email from Flutterwave lawyers, Tutela Digitale, they claimed that the ‘circumstances are no longer current’, while asking that the content which made reference to bullying, sexual harassment and intimidation at the company in April 2022 by former staff Clara Wanjiku.
The email stated in part “the information contained within that link refers to an old case of Mr. Agboola Olugbenga. It should be noted that these circumstances are no longer current and no longer correspond to the reality of the facts.”
It went on to add “the information is therefore dated and no longer of public interest and as reported is likely to cause serious damage to the privacy of Mr. Agboola Olugbenga, as well as his image and reputation, especially since the link appear among the first results of the Google search, when typing the name of my client as a keyword.”
The legal request made reference to the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations and asked that the article be ‘eliminated’. The article by the Kenyan content creator is still published at the time of this publication, albeit it was not entirely on Mr. Agboola Olugbenga, but an appointment made by the organization.
When the allegations were made by Clara on April 4th, Mr. Agboola responded to them later in the month in which he clarified that the fintech unicorn has “no tolerance for sexual harassment.”
However, as published by Business Insider, he never admitted any wrongdoings or apologized.
“I’m writing today because I want you to know how concerned I am about the impact that reading the false allegations against our company has had on you all,” Agboola wrote.
It also came at a time when Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin detailed how the company’s founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, allegedly carried out multiple misconducts ranging from fraud and perjury to insider trading and sexual harassment.
The Business Insider article noted “Agboola’s email to employees failed to address allegations of creating a fictitious co-founder and CTO identity called ‘Greg’ to allocate more shares to himself. The Flutterwave chief executive also failed to address accusations of Flutterwave performing fraudulent activities — with investors’ knowledge — against its clients.”
Last month, the Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) made a formal withdrawal of a case filed against Flutterwave, allowing the firm to take back the Ksh6.6 billion that has remained frozen for close to a year. It had been frozen for money laundering fears and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) ordering banks to cut links with the firm.
Since President William Ruto came to power, the fortunes of the company took a turn for better and Mr. Olugbenga Agboola has been seen in public spaces with the President.
Earlier in the week, the Flutterwave founder is said to have bought a Miami beach house valued at US$7.1 million.
