The Nigerian payment infrastructure business Kora has been cleared of fraud accusations by Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency (ARA).
The agency said that it has completely abandoned its lawsuit in new court filings submitted to the Nairobi Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Division of the High Court of Kenya.
On October 19, 2022, the document was drawn up, filed, and signed by state attorney Stephen Githinji on behalf of Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency director.
Kora was exonerated of all wrongdoing in the ARA application, according to a different document released by the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigation earlier this week.
Case not established: In a statement clearing the corporation, the DCI stated that after conducting its investigations, there was no case to be made against it. A portion of the DCI’s statement read as follows:
- “Please note that investigations are now finalised. I would like to confirm that allegations of money laundering and card fraud against [Kora] were not established. Please treat this communication as final”
Innocence proved: In response to the development, Kora stated that the case’s withdrawal supported its prior assertion that it was not responsible for any of the charges. Gideon Orovwiroro, the company’s chief operating officer, said:
- “Kora has always maintained its innocence in this matter and we are glad that finally the ARA and the DCI have dropped all charges and ratified Kora. We’d also like to commend both agencies for their professionalism and thoroughness in seeing this investigation to the conclusive end,” says,
- “Kora acknowledges the potential Kenya presents as we pursue our mission to make it easy for global businesses to accept payments in Africa, and for African businesses to accept global payments. We are delighted to get back to building the most robust payment product on the African continent.
- “We have some exciting announcements coming soon, including multi-currency bank account products for African businesses. This will empower merchants to have bank accounts in GBP, EUR, USD, and other in-demand currencies. Kora is excited about this development as it is further proof of its commitment to enrich the quality of merchants’ payments and build more meaningful financial products.”
The ARA filed two lawsuits against the companies, and the Kenyan High Court froze their accounts in July after they were suspected of bringing over $50 million (KES6 billion) into Kenya as part of a money laundering conspiracy. This brought Kora to public attention.
While another firm under investigation, Kandon Technologies, had $126,800 (KES 15 million) in 2 UBA accounts frozen by Justice Esther Maina, Lady Justice Esther Maina froze $249,990 (KES 29.5 million) held in Korapay’s Equity Bank account.
International money laundering and card fraud were charged against Korapay and Kandon Technologies Limited.
