The Chief Executive Officer of Africa’s most valued fintech startup, Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola, has been fingered in allegations ranging from fraud to staff bullying and employee sexual harassment.
This was detailed in a 65-paragraph undercover story written by independent journalist, David Hundeyin, under the title: “Flutterwave: The African Unicorn Built On Quicksand.”
Agboola’s ordeal comes barely three weeks after Bento Africa’s CEO, Ebun Okubanjo, was accused of gross staff-bullying and general misconducts that led to his dismissal as CEO by the board of the HR management startup.
An ex-employee of Flutterwave, simply identified as Jennifer, had resigned and employed the service of a Nigerian legal firm, Banwo & Ighodalo, to sue Agboola and his company after accusing the duo of not fulfilling their end of the bargain as stated in her employment letter.
David, alongside other voices in the post, accused Agboola, who in the story was referenced by his initial: GB, of highhandedness and abuse of power, citing confessional statements from ex-employees of the $3B company and other internal correspondences as evidences.
According to David, Agboola had sought to discredit the story by publishing “a fawning 2,300-word PR interview material” days before he (David) published his investigation in a bid to present the public with answers to anticipated allegations.
“Unsurprisingly, when the material in question – a fawning 2,300-word PR interview – eventually emerged on April 3, it was an attempt at a direct response to the issues mentioned in the request for comment above, namely employee stock option fraud, sexual harassment and workplace bullying. A little amusingly, it contained a facile attempt to respond to a serious insider trading issue that I briefly teased with an ex employee who had spent our 45 minute conversation referring to Flutterwave as “we.” She incidentally, showed up at the Flutterwave Retreat in Accra, Ghana a few days later,” David wrote.
Amongst other allegations and corporate misconducts, Agboola was accused of illegal internal trading and penchant for invading justice.
Several evidences presented by David marred Agboola’s reputation as an industry leader.
In a screenshot, David shared confessional statements of Agboola where he admitted to have faked his voice in an attempt to impersonate over a conference call.
Ex-employees who also confided in David acknowledged that Agboola’s Flutterwave was involved in malpractice and shady deals.
As at the time of press, Agboola is yet to respond to the content of the undercover story.
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