• Login
  • Register
Nairametrics
  • Home
  • Exclusives
    • Financial Analysis
    • Corporate Stories
    • Interviews
    • Investigations
    • Metrics
    • Economy
    • Nairalytics
  • Markets
    • Currencies
    • Cryptos
    • Commodities
    • Equities
      • Company Results
      • Dividends
      • Stock Market
    • Fixed Income
    • Market Views
    • Securities
  • Sectors
    • Agriculture
    • Aviation
    • Company News
    • Consumer Goods
    • Corporate Updates
    • Corporate deals
    • Corporate Press Releases
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Health
    • Hospitality & Travel
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate and Construction
    • Renewables & Sustainability
    • Tech News
  • Business News
    • Budget
    • Public Debt
    • Funds Management
    • Tax
  • Financial Literacy
    • Career tips
    • Personal Finance
  • Lifestyle
    • Billionaire Watch
    • Profiles
  • Opinions
    • Blurb
    • Op-Eds
    • Research Analysis
  • Recapitalization
    • Access Holdings Offer
    • Fidelity Bank Offer
    • GTCO Offer
    • Zenith Bank Offer
  • Home
  • Exclusives
    • Financial Analysis
    • Corporate Stories
    • Interviews
    • Investigations
    • Metrics
    • Economy
    • Nairalytics
  • Markets
    • Currencies
    • Cryptos
    • Commodities
    • Equities
      • Company Results
      • Dividends
      • Stock Market
    • Fixed Income
    • Market Views
    • Securities
  • Sectors
    • Agriculture
    • Aviation
    • Company News
    • Consumer Goods
    • Corporate Updates
    • Corporate deals
    • Corporate Press Releases
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Health
    • Hospitality & Travel
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate and Construction
    • Renewables & Sustainability
    • Tech News
  • Business News
    • Budget
    • Public Debt
    • Funds Management
    • Tax
  • Financial Literacy
    • Career tips
    • Personal Finance
  • Lifestyle
    • Billionaire Watch
    • Profiles
  • Opinions
    • Blurb
    • Op-Eds
    • Research Analysis
  • Recapitalization
    • Access Holdings Offer
    • Fidelity Bank Offer
    • GTCO Offer
    • Zenith Bank Offer
Nairametrics
No Result
View All Result
Home Sectors Tech News

Nigeria’s tech unicorn, Flutterwave accused of “insider trading”, “fraud”

William Ukpe by William Ukpe
April 13, 2022
in Tech News
Kenya Withdraws Financial Impropriety Case Against Flutterwave
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

An investigative report has accused one of Nigeria’s largest tech unicorns Flutterwave of allegations bothering “insider trading, fraud, and perjury” occurring over a 4 year period.

In one of the most damning accusations against one of Africa’s largest Tech Unicorns in Africa, the report largely accuses Olugbenga Agboola, Co-Founder of Flutterwave of engaging in impersonation, insider trading and inappropriate behaviours in the workplace.

This was revealed in an investigation report on the company, by independent investigative Journalist David Hundeyin on Tuesday titled, “Flutterwave: The African Unicorn Built On Quicksand”, he accused the organization of fraud, perjury, and insider trading shedding a dark cloud over one of the most respected tech startups in Africa.

RelatedStories

Meet Dahiru Mangal, a Nigerian billionaire businessman who started out as a truck driver

Meet Dahiru Mangal, a Nigerian billionaire businessman who started out as a truck driver

June 3, 2023
How Deola Sagoe left her father's company, Elizade Motors, to build a global fashion brand

How Deola Sagoe left her father’s company, Elizade Motors, to build a global fashion brand

May 20, 2023

Mr. Hundeyin confirmed to Nairametrics that he authored the article. Nairametrics cannot independently verify some of the details and accusations in the article. Flutterwave was yet to respond to Nairametric’s requests for comments on the matter at the time of publishing but promised to share a statement soon.

The article has also gone viral on social media and is being discussed across several channels including Twitter spaces and ClubHouse. Mr Hundeyin also granted a Twitter Spaces audio session where he discussed the article with listeners.

Highlights of the report

  • The expose was based on interviews with three ex-employees of Flutterwave whom the writer said he had an extensive discussion for his story. The accusation was largely on Mr, Olugbenga Agboola “GB”, the founder of Flutterwave.
  • He accused Mr, Olugbenga Agboola (GB), the founder of Flutterwave of engaging in “insider trading” by offering to buy “stock options” from employees at a price “lower” than the “market price”.
  • He also alleged that this was an offense under US law and could attract jail time.
  • He also accused GB of impersonating and double-dealing by using his contact as a staff of Access Bank (Nigeria’s largest bank by asset base) to give deals to Flutterwave unbeknownst to unsuspecting clients and Access Bank. GB was also working for Access Bank at the time.
  • He also accused Flutterwave of engaging in “fraudulent” activities by dealing Arik Air without “paperwork” thus facilitating transactions without proper documentation.
  • “Basically someone at Arik started a payments company to process payments for Arik, but he was processing through Flutterwave. So he got a cut of every Arik transaction – and Arik transaction volumes were among the biggest at Flutterwave – but there was no reseller agreement. Isn’t that basically corruption?”
  • Mr. Hundeyin also accused legal firm Banwo and Ighodalo “B&I” of caving in to the demand of Flutterwave by advising a client to drop a case against the Tech Unicor after they had initially told the client otherwise,
  • “Suddenly and without notice, shortly after presenting a professional opinion stating that Flutterwave was in the wrong and had a case to answer, B&I quietly informed Jennifer that they had been retained by Flutterwave and they would have to drop her case. Apparently whenever Flutterwave wants anything in Nigeria – ethical or not – GB just signs a cheque and makes any problem go away.”
  • The report further accused investors in Flutterwave of largely ignoring some of the accusations even though they were aware of them.
  • “Someone sent an email detailing all these fraudulent activities to every investor on the cap table, and they are all aware and they talk about it, but they did nothing.”

What David Hundeyin is saying

Nairametrics reached out to Mr. Hundeyin on the insider trading accusation to which he responded as follows

“Under American SEC regulations, insider trading also applies to companies whose stocks are traded privately. Contrary to the popular idea, there are in fact pricing mechanisms to determine the market price of non publicly traded stocks, using workarounds like Pitchbook, which function as de-facto stock trade ledgers for private stocks. Thus, contrary to the narrative being promoted that such stocks can be priced unilaterally by an individual since there is no supply and demand equilibrium matching mechanism, the market prices of private stocks can in fact be accessed easily. This classifies the deliberate underpricing of employee stocks and subsequent stock buyback of such underpriced stocks as insider trading, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment in the US.

He also stated that different employees had different stock option contracts which perhaps explained the trigger for the alleged “insider trading”.

” It should also be noted that clauses stipulating what prices employees would be allowed to sell their stocks at were not in fact included in Flutterwave employment contracts for the period in question. Thus different employees were able to obtain different prices for their stocks depending on their bargaining power or influence with the CEO, which potentially opened the door to a whole new set of problems relating to favouritism, office politics and inappropriate workplace relationships.”

This article is the second in a series of stories targeted at the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem. Last two weeks Tech Cabal published a “toxic workplace article accusing the now-suspended CEO of Bento Africa Ebunoluwa Okunbanjo of workplace harassment. Okunbajo issued an apology for the behaviour.

Read the full article on accusing Flutterwave by David Hundeyin here.

Tags: Featured
William Ukpe

William Ukpe

For further inquiries about this article contact: Email: william.ukpe@nairametrics.com or outreach@nairametrics.com. Twitter: @_sirwilliam_ @nairametrics.

Related Posts

Meet Dahiru Mangal, a Nigerian billionaire businessman who started out as a truck driver
Profiles

Meet Dahiru Mangal, a Nigerian billionaire businessman who started out as a truck driver

June 3, 2023
How Deola Sagoe left her father's company, Elizade Motors, to build a global fashion brand
Profiles

How Deola Sagoe left her father’s company, Elizade Motors, to build a global fashion brand

May 20, 2023
Nigerian weddings
Lifestyle

The economics of Nigerian weddings

April 30, 2023
CBN reduces over-the-counter withdrawals to N100k, N500k per week for individuals, companies
Currencies

Updated: Tracker of CBN’s monetary policy announcements since 2020

December 10, 2022
Redesigning or sensitizing; what's the way to go?
Economy

CBN’s Intervention Funds to private sector rises to N4.8 trillion as of November 2022

November 28, 2022
SWOOTs capitalization up by N122 billion
Equities

SWOOTs capitalization up by N122 billion

November 20, 2022
Next Post
Meet Chinwe Esimai, Nigerian-born MD and Chief Anti-Bribery Officer at Citigroup

Meet Chinwe Esimai, Nigerian-born MD and Chief Anti-Bribery Officer at Citigroup

Comments 4

  1. Sam says:
    April 14, 2022 at 4:20 am

    I have ALWAYS hated this company immediately I had an issue I needed to be resolved and they kept playing me. I personally wrote to GB via Twitter hoping to hasten and resolve the issue, till tomorrow, he NEVER replied me.

    Reply
  2. 9jaRealist says:
    April 14, 2022 at 7:41 am

    While it’s encouraging to see a Nigerian journalist undertake such investigative reporting, the outcome falls well short of its promise. An A+ for effort but a D for substance.

    For starters, doubtful that the SEC would be interested in allegations of insider trading in a non-publicly-traded entity, as the SEC’s brief is protection of the investing PUBLIC. And frankly NONE of the events described in the piece amount to “insider trading”.

    Furthermore, stock options are not identical. Terms governing each award (including exercise and/or disposal) are governed by the particular contract wrt such award. Without being privy to the details thereof, it’s impossible to tell if anyone was “duped”.

    Finally, the allegations of predatory sexual behavior was most troubling, but sadly reflective of sexism and misogyny prevalent in Nigerian society. Companies in Nigeria must be made to institute a robust “strict liability” policy against such behavior.

    CONGRATS to the journalist on a very commendable (and brave, in Nigeria) effort. Hopefully, he won’t be discouraged that the outcome fell considerably short of promise. We get better by doing and learning.

    Reply
  3. Robin Hood says:
    April 14, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    Sam you evaluation is watery and snacks on sentimental bias for Flutterwave. I’m compelled to suspect you are a troll for Flutterwave.

    Reply
  4. Kwame says:
    April 17, 2022 at 2:22 pm

    Well that Said.. All Wrongs have been observed. I will like to encourage the journalist to also highlight the great things done by the accused in the Fintech space.. That will help bring clarity to understanding your case!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

first bank








DUNS

Recent News

  • Alleged $12 Million Money Laundering: EFCC Witness testifies against SunTrust Bank MD, Executive Director 
  • Three cement giants and FIRSTHOLDCO spark rally as ASI shatters 130,000 on the Nigerian stock market 
  • FG to host International Air Show in Abuja in December 

Follow us on social media:

Recent News

Federal High Court, ,

Alleged $12 Million Money Laundering: EFCC Witness testifies against SunTrust Bank MD, Executive Director 

July 17, 2025
Weekly Stock Update: Nigerian Exchange Group record growth w-o-w, up by 0.48%

Three cement giants and FIRSTHOLDCO spark rally as ASI shatters 130,000 on the Nigerian stock market 

July 17, 2025
  • iOS App
  • Android App
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Markets
  • Sectors
  • Economy
  • Business News
  • Financial Literacy
  • Disclaimer
  • Ads Disclaimer
  • Copyright Infringement

© 2025 Nairametrics

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Exclusives
    • Financial Analysis
    • Corporate Stories
    • Interviews
    • Investigations
    • Metrics
    • Economy
    • Nairalytics
  • Markets
    • Currencies
    • Cryptos
    • Commodities
    • Equities
      • Company Results
      • Dividends
      • Stock Market
    • Fixed Income
    • Market Views
    • Securities
  • Sectors
    • Agriculture
    • Aviation
    • Company News
    • Consumer Goods
    • Corporate Updates
    • Corporate deals
    • Corporate Press Releases
    • Energy
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Health
    • Hospitality & Travel
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate and Construction
    • Renewables & Sustainability
    • Tech News
  • Business News
    • Budget
    • Public Debt
    • Funds Management
    • Tax
  • Financial Literacy
    • Career tips
    • Personal Finance
  • Lifestyle
    • Billionaire Watch
    • Profiles
  • Opinions
    • Blurb
    • Op-Eds
    • Research Analysis
  • Recapitalization
    • Access Holdings Offer
    • Fidelity Bank Offer
    • GTCO Offer
    • Zenith Bank Offer
  • Login
  • Sign Up

© 2025 Nairametrics