Naira Marley has been accused of money laundering and internet fraud
• Niara Marley faces court trial
• He has been charged for fraud and money laundering
• Naira Marley was grabbed by the EFCC in 2019
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that several credit card numbers have been extracted while analyzing the contents of a total of 2,410 messages found on Naira Marley’s phone.
The Nigerian singer who is currently facing trial at a Lagos high court has been charged with 11 counts bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit credit cards, and fraud, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
It can be recalled that Naira Marley was arrested by the EFCC on May 20, 2019, for fraud and money laundering.
But in the latest development, the second prosecution witness, Augustine Anosike has disclosed in court that with the help of forensic experts, some credit cards have been discovered during investigations.
Some of these credit cards, according to a saharareporters.com report, bore the names; Nicole Louise Malyon, Timea Fedorne Tatar among others.
This according to the prosecution contravenes the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and the Cyber Crimes Act.
“A total of 977 Short Message Service (SMS) and 1433 chat messages were discovered. We also discovered seven pending status update messages. On November 26, 2018, there was an outgoing message registered about 3.32 pm, with a credit card number 5264711020433662.This message was sent to one Yadd. On December 11, 2018, there was an incoming message to the defendant’s device which read: ‘You’re One Time Passcode (OTP) to verify your mobile number is 248716; wasn’t you, please call us on 63450808500,” The prosecution said.
Also, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, revealed during the conclusion of his analysis that the contents were found on Naira Marley’s iPhone X version 10.6, model A 1901, with number 07427343432 and an email, [email protected].
“Apple iPhone is a sophisticated device capable of storing a large volume of information. It is the SIM card that basically identifies users of applications like WhatsApp. It, therefore, means that as long as a number has already been registered with a particular WhatsApp account, it matters less if such a user leaves the country. There are cases where a WhatsApp application can still be used even though the registered SIM card is not inserted in the phone. The chatting app used in the analyzed device was WhatsApp,” he stated.