Flutterwave CEO, Agboola in abuse of power scandal, amid series of allegations

Flutterwave co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olugbenga Agboola, who was formerly an employee of Access Bank has dragged the lender into series of allegations.

Agboola was accused of abusing his position in Access Bank, as Head, Digital Factory and Innovation, to favour Flutterwave during meetings with investors, an investigative report by West Africa Weekly has revealed.

Abuse of power

The report released on Tuesday cited various infractions on the part of Agboola, one of which was posing as Access Bank representative during an investor call to favour Flutterwave.

While Agboola claimed on his LinkedIn account that he was no longer an employee of Access Bank, he was portraying himself as a member of the bank during Flutterwave investor meeting, while also advising his business partner, Adeleke Adekoya, to also act as Access Bank staff during another meeting – without the knowledge of the bank.

Read also: Flutterwave denies claims by ex-employee, fails to address allegations against CEO

This double dealing led to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to probe Agboola’s involvement in Access Bank and Flutterwave. As a result, Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, former Flutterwave CEO, flew to U.S for a SEC hearing, where they claimed Agboola never worked simultaneously for both companies.

However, while Agboola’s LinkedIn profile says he left Access Bank in 2016, it was discovered that as of 2017 and 2018, Agboola was still an employee of Access Bank according to the bank’s official documents carrying his name and signature, as seen in the report.

That wasn’t all the wrongs involving Agboola and Flutterwave as it relates to Access Bank.

Flutterwave was also said to have stopped remitting payment for Web acquired and Switch fees, amounting to N221.10 million, for all Ravepay transactions done by the Fintech firm between April 2016 to August 2018, according to a letter sent to the unicorn firm by Olubusola Osilaja, during her time as Access Bank’s Segment Head, Channels Services.

It was gathered that Flutterwave was receiving the percentage of Access Bank, and transferring the funds to its own company account before the act was discovered by an audit during the merger of Access and Diamond Bank.

Stock manipulation

Agboola was also accused of creating another identity known as Greg Agboola, to deceive his partners, Adeleke Adekoya and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, in a bid to get more shares than agreed.

The report stated that Adekoya was meant to receive 37.5% of the company, while Aboyeji and Agboola are expected to share 62.5%, however, Agboola created the identity of “Greg”, informing them that the person would take 10% of Flutterwave, and this stake would be provided from Aboyeji and Adekoya’s shareholdings.

Part of the accusations included his refusal to handover 40,000 shares to one of the employees as agreed, while other employees that received their shares were given at a rather low value of $3.50 per share, compared to the actual market value given to an investor, which is close to $20.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the employees are only permitted to sell to an investment vehicle owned by Agboola.

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