Sports betting operator SportPesa’s aborted return to the Kenyan gambling market just got a whole lot messier after the country’s financial watchdog opened a probe into major international financial transfers.  

On Monday, Kenyan media reported that the country’s Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) had opened a probe to determine whether there is any “criminality” in the Ksh30b (US$278m) that SportPesa reportedly transferred from local accounts to international banks over the past three years.  

Allegations of impropriety in the fund transfers were made earlier this month by Paul Wanderi Ndung’u, a shareholder in SportPesa’s Kenya-based parent company Pevans East Africa Ltd.

Ndung’u accused SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri and the company’s Bulgarian investors of transferring profits generated in Kenya to subsidiaries in other countries to avoid (a) paying local taxes and (b) sharing these profits with Pevans shareholders like Ndung’u.