The US government has piled up more charges in the previous $20 million bank fraud case against Air Peace CEO Allen Onyema, as the Nigerian businessman continues to evade trial in a US court for the past five years.
Although Onyema, founder of the major Nigerian airline, has denied any wrongdoing, he is wanted in the United States for bank fraud charges pending against him and a co-defendant in the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, since 2019. .
“On October 8, 2024, both were charged in a superseding indictment alleging one additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice,” the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Friday in a statement.
The office said Onyema is charged with “obstruction of justice for submitting false documents to the government in an effort to end an investigation into him that resulted in previous charges of bank fraud and money laundering.”
Prosecutors said he submitted false documents to U.S. authorities in 2019 in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts in connection with the alleged $20 million bank fraud.
Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline's head of administration and finance, accused of involvement in the alleged obstruction scheme as well as previous bank fraud charges, is Mr Onyema's co-accused in the case.
“After allegedly using his airline company as a cover to commit fraud in the United States banking system, Onyema, along with his co-defendant, allegedly committed additional fraud offenses in an unsuccessful attempt to derail the government's investigation into his conduct.” the statement cited U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.
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Alleged conspirator already sentenced
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Onyema remained wanted in the United States after a US court convicted an alleged conspirator in the $20 million bank fraud case in September 2022.
In the decision, the United States District Court sentenced Ebony Mayfield, an American woman, to three years of probation for her role in helping facilitate the alleged fraud.
She escaped a prison sentence because she pleaded guilty shortly before the trial began.
Her attorney also based her request for a conditional sentence on the grounds that she was remorseful and cooperated with the government during investigations.
They also said he benefited little from the alleged fraud, with Mayfield confessing that he received only a total of $20,000 for his role in the alleged conspiracy between 2016 and 2018.
CEO, co-defendant on the run
Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema
While Ms. Mayfield struggled with her trial, Mr. Onyema and Mr. Eghagha were fleeing charges and arrest warrants.
The United States government named Messrs. Onyema and Eghagha in all 36 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, credit application fraud, and identity theft filed against them on November 19, 2019.
US authorities obtained warrants for the arrest of the two men in the United States and Canada, where some of the suspected fraud proceeds were said to have been moved.
Previously, before the charges were filed, Russell Vineyard, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, issued the corresponding arrest warrant for Messrs. Onyema and Eghagha in Canada on September 5, 2019.
In another arrest warrant issued on November 19, 2019, Justin Anand, a US magistrate of the same court, ordered the US Marshals Service to take them into custody.
Both men have since managed to evade arrest by US or Canadian authorities.
But US authorities arrested Mayfield on June 7, 2019.
In December 2019, she was charged with signing and submitting false documents to help Onyema facilitate the $20 million fraud between May 2016 and February 2018. She later pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September 2022.
'Replacement' accusation
The US government has now filed a superseding indictment in the nearly five-year-old case, introducing two additional charges, bringing to 38 the total number of charges now pending against Onyema and his co-defendant.
US authorities accused Onyema of moving suspicious funds from Nigeria to US bank accounts between 2017 and 2018, with the funds allegedly disguised to be used to purchase aircraft.
Mr. Onyema and his co-defendant, Mr. Eghagha, allegedly organized the fraud by requesting export letters of credit for the transfer of funds from a Nigerian bank account to the bank account of Mr. Onyema's company based in Atlanta, Georgia. , Springfield Aviation LLC. between 2016 and 2017.
The defendants, according to US prosecutors, allegedly solicited funds for Air Peace's purchase of aircraft from Springfield Aviation.
Both Air Peace, a major Nigerian commercial airline, and US-based Springfield Aviation are owned by Mr Onyema.
Air Peace Airlines
Prosecutors also said the plane referenced in each of the export letters of credit sent to U.S. banks was never owned or sold by Springfield Aviation.
They said the defendants made false statements and reports and deliberately overvalued properties to influence the actions of U.S. banks.
Mr. Eghagha is said to have sent the false documents, including fabricated purchase agreements, sales invoices and valuation documents, to Ms. Mayfield to sign and present to the respective banks in support of the letters of credit.
Onyema had hired Mayfield, who at various times was a waitress, restaurant waitress and nightclub dancer, in 2016 to act as manager of Springfield Aviation and enter into contracts on behalf of the company.
Prosecutors said she “had no connection to the aviation business outside of her role at Springfield Aviation and was not educated, trained or licensed in the inspection and appraisal of aircraft, including aircraft components.”
They allege that Onyema founded and used Springfield Aviation “to facilitate large transfers of funds from his Nigerian bank accounts to the United States.”
Onyema allegedly moved about $15 million from Springfield Aviation's account at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Atlanta, Georgia, to his personal savings account at the same bank in 27 transactions in 2017.
Each of the 27 transactions alone constitutes a charge of money laundering.
In May 2019, upon discovering that he was being investigated in the Northern District of Georgia for bank fraud, Messrs. Onyema and Eghagha allegedly ordered Springfield Aviation manager Ms. Mayfield to sign a key business contract, but also told her They specifically said not to date anyone. the document.
In October 2019, Onyema allegedly had his lawyers present that same contract, now falsely dated as having been signed on May 5, 2016 (before the bank fraud that began in 2016), to the government in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts.
The submission of the alleged false documents forms the basis for the new charge of obstruction of justice and a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the superseded charges.
“Onyema and his co-conspirators allegedly fraudulently used the U.S. banking system in an effort to conceal the source of their ill-gotten money,” Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lisa Fontanette, Internal Revenue Service – Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said Friday. from Atlanta.
Denial
An Air Peace spokesperson, in a telephone interview with our reporter on Saturday, dismissed the new development in the case as a mere recycling of the same set of allegations. The official said Onyema's legal team would give a more formal response in due course.
Meanwhile, Messrs. Onyema and Eghagha had denied the charges in previous press statements, the latest being the one issued through a Nigerian law firm after the court convicted Ms. Mayfield in September 2022.
The statement from law firm AO Alegeh & Co is silent on the fraud and money laundering charges against Onyema and his co-accused in the same court where Mayfield was prosecuted.
But they maintained in the press release that the court's failure to impose any prison, confinement or home detention sentence on Ms. Mayfield confirmed that there was no fraud in the $20 million deal.
They then added that the US government “admitted today in court that no bank suffered any financial loss in this matter.”
The statement also denied that Mr Onyema had paid Ms Mayfield $20,000 for her role in the alleged fraud, and insisted that “all actions taken in respect of the Letters of Credit were taken in good faith and with legitimate funds.”
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“All aircraft involved were brought to Nigeria and used in Air Peace Limited operations. There were no victims. “There was no loss of funds to any person and there was no criminal intent.”
The law firm added that various law enforcement agencies in Nigeria had reviewed the case and “no evidence of criminality” was found against him.
In the previous statement he issued following the revelation of the charges in November 2019, Onyema promised to “defend my innocence in American courts.”
But despite the promise, Onyema and his co-accused are yet to appear in court to plead guilty.