The founders of Flexitech Group Limited, the company behind the Kenyan save-now-buy-later fintech FlexPay, have been arrested over the alleged theft of KES 31.2 million ($242,000) belonging to an unnamed major retail chain, adding to scrutiny of the startup after months of customer complaints about delayed withdrawals.
Martin Kariuki Maina and Johnson Gituma Mwangi were arrested in Roysambu, Nairobi, by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the agency said on Wednesday.
The DCI said the two were acting as agents of the retailer and allegedly collected money from customers who had purchased goods and picked them up at several of the retailer’s branches. The money was supposed to be remitted to the retailer.
“The funds had been entrusted to the suspects for onward remittance to the retailer,” the DCI said. “However, detectives established that the two, acting jointly with other suspects still at large, allegedly diverted the funds for their own use.”
Originally published by TechCabal.