Cybercrime Section of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday submitted reports of forensic investigations led by Whyte Dein to support their case against singer Azeez Fashola, alias Naira Marley, charged with credit card fraud before the Ikoyi Federal High Court in Lagos, Nigeria..
This information was provided by Chief Detective Officer Dein to the court as a result of a thorough investigation by his team.
Eleven counts of alleged credit card fraud in violation of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and the Cyber Crimes Act were levied against the musician.
Between November 26 and December 11, 2018, and May 10, 2018, it was discovered that the singer had committed these offences. Despite being charged, he was released on bail on the 20th of May, 2019.
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Defendant’s attorney, Rotimi Oyedepo, testified on behalf of the EFCC that he and Dein had discovered conversations on the defendant’s iPhone with a man named Raze who requested the defendant’s credit card information.
His findings from the forensic report showed the defendant had sent credit card details, including card numbers and expiration dates, to several people in chat. The defendant sent a list of credit card numbers and expiration dates to someone he called Raze. Raze was notified via this message that the provided Visa Card information was invalid.
By conducting an investigation, we discovered that he had previously sent messages with a fraudulent credit or debit card. We then carried out the same procedure a second time, and this time it worked.
Furthermore, Dein stated that the singer used a multi-lingual browser to access illegal networks.
“The defendant used malicious tools to disguise the identity and location of the laptop’s user when connected to the internet, along with the presence of the Top Browser, which acted as a single gateway to the dark net,” he explained. Because of this, we had a reasonable suspicion that the defendant had been engaged in card fraud. The evidence for this was provided in response to our inquiry to the Visa Western Union Card.”
Illicit goods, such as narcotics, firearms, and stolen credit card numbers, are commonly traded on the dark web. Hit men are hired, human trafficking is done, and child pornography is traded in the seediest of alleys.
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Buru Buhari, a forensics expert, testified in court on October 3, 2019 that he had found stolen credit card information from the singer’s laptop, including those from European, American, and Latin American banks.
Derin concluded by stating that the investigations had shown that the defendant had been involved in cyber-fraud.. However, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, the defence attorney, objected and insisted that only the court could make a final determination.
A decision on the issues raised will be made on July 13 and the trial will continue on July 15 after that.