The Nigerian Police Force has disclosed plans to arrest 601 individuals linked to a technical glitch that caused fintech company Flutterwave to lose N21.2 billion in unauthorised transactions last year.
The glitch, which occurred between October 12 and 13, 2023, reportedly allowed over 9,663 unauthorised transactions by point-of-sale (POS) merchants, enabling them to conduct transactions exceeding their available balances.
In response, Flutterwave launched an immediate recovery operation, reporting the breach to the police and collaborating with Wema Bank and other financial institutions to halt the processing of settlement accounts linked to the fraudulent activities.
These efforts helped the company recover N7.2 billion from the losses.
The police revealed that their investigations into 814 POS merchants associated with the breach have led to some arrests.
However, an additional 601 account holders, suspected to have received proceeds from the illegal transactions, are now being targeted for arrest.
Authorities explained that the implicated merchants exploited the glitch by transferring substantial amounts of money to relatives, friends, and other associates.
To strengthen their recovery efforts, the police sought a court order to freeze accounts across several banks, including Polaris Bank, Sparkle Microfinance Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank, Unity Bank, and Wema Bank.
Earlier in February, Flutterwave confirmed the discovery of the technical glitch, describing it as a major breach that compromised its platform and led to billions in unauthorised transactions.
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