Controversial musician, Naira Marley allegedly link with credit card scam
The controversial Nigerian musician Azeez Fashola popularly called Naira Marley, has ran into trouble water, following forensic investigation by the cybercrime section of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) which link him to credit card fraud.
Penpushing reports that, the Chief Detective Officer of the commission, Whyte Dein led the forensic investigation, told the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos State that his team’s investigations revealed that the defendant was involved in the crime.
The Chief Detective Officer, led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, at the resumed hearing on Thursday told the court that the team discovered conversations on the defendant’s iPhone with one Raze who asked for a credit card details.
“One of our findings from the forensic report shows the exchange of chat messages with several persons when the defendant sent credit card details, including card numbers and expiration dates. Visa card details were one of those sent by the defendant to a certain person known on his contact list as Raze. This message sent Visa Card details to Raze, after which Raze replied that the card was not valid”, he informed the court
“We were able to establish through investigation the previous messages he sent with a wrong card that was indeed not valid. We then repeated the same process a second time which was now valid”,Dein added
Penpushing further reports that, the Chief Detective Officer in the same vein, told the court that Naira Marley used a multi-lingual browser to access illegal networks, adding that he used malicious tools to disguise the identity and location of the user of the laptop when connected to the internet along with the presence of the Top Browser which acted as a single gateway to the dark net.
“The defendant used malicious tools to disguise the identity and location of the user of the laptop when connected to the internet along with the presence of the Top Browser which acted as a single gateway to the dark net. This gave us a reasonable ground to suspect that the defendant had been engaging in fraudulent card activities. And this was established through a reply to our request to Visa Western Union Card”
“The types of sites most commonly associated with the dark web are marketplaces where illicit goods such as narcotics, firearms, and stolen credit card numbers are bought and sold. The darkest corners are used to hire hitmen, engage in human trafficking, and exchange child pornography.”
The Chief Detective Officer in his final submission said the investigations pointed out the musician involvement in cyber fraud, but the defense counsel, Olalekan Ojo,(SAN), objected arguing that only the court could conclude.
Penpushing also reports that, in a related development, another forensics expert, Buru Buhari had on October 3, 2019 during the proceedings, told the court that his investigations revealed stolen card details issued by European, American, and Latin American banks from the accused laptop.
The artiste faced 11 charges bordering on alleged credit card fraud contrary to Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and the Cyber Crimes Act, while it was gathered that he committed these offenses between November 26 and December 11, 2018, and May 10, 2018, but was arraigned on May 20, 2019, and granted bail.
Penpushing reports that, the judge, Justice Nicholas Oweibo adjourned the case till July 13 for ruling on the points raised, and July 15 for continuation of trial.
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