Dein Whyte, a witness at the conspiracy and credit card fraud suit against Azeez Fashola, a musician popularly known as Naira Marley, has revealed that Visa Credit Card Service Corporation flagged the artiste’s credit card for fraud.

Whyte, who is also an investigator for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), testified in Lagos on Thursday.

A statement from the EFCC detailed the witness’ testimony.

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“The 10th prosecution witness, PW10, in the trial of Nigerian singer, Azeez Fashola, (a.k.a Naira Marley), Dein Whyte, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, November 30, 2023, told Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos how Visa, a card payment platform, flagged one of the credit card details found on a device belonging to the singer, due to fraudulent transactions,” the EFCC stated.

“Naira Marley is standing trial on 11-count charges bordering on conspiracy and credit card fraud brought against him by the EFCC. Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Bilikisu Buhari.”

Whyte said that his testimony was a result of a forensic analysis and investigation.

“As part of the findings from the investigation, forensic analysis revealed that malicious programmes that are being used to illegally obtain credit card information, which can be used for card non-present transactions, were found on the device that was recovered from the defendant upon his arrest,” Whyte said.

“…tools that are used to verify the validity, active state and accuracy of credit card credentials as well as the region of the issuer of that card were discovered on the defendant’s device. The analysis further revealed the website that had been accessed on the computer of the defendant through his browser history. The websites include sites where credit card information are illegally traded.”

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Whyte told the court that a letter of investigation was written to Visa and that the payment service company confirmed that the card had been flagged for fraudulent transactions.

Visa did not link the credit card fraud to Naira Marley’s device “because the investigation was on the card and not on the device being used for the fraud”, according to Whyte.

Whyte explained further that the phone and the laptop recovered from Naira Marley were both registered with his credentials, name and email address.

“With respect to the card details recovered from the device of the defendant, investigations revealed that he also exchanged those details with other persons,” Whyte said.

Justice Oweibo adjourned the case until March 6 and 7.