The US Attorney’s Office has issued new charges against the founder of Nigeria’s biggest airline, Air Peace, who was accused of fraud and money laundering in 2019.
The US government on 11 October charged Allen Onyema, CEO of Nigerian carrier Air Peace, with obstruction of justice, stacking up further criminal charges against the Nigerian businessman, who has continued to elude the US courts since 2019.
The US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, accused Onyema of submitting false documents to the government to end an investigation into him on charges of bank fraud and money laundering.
Onyema and Ejiroghene Eghagha, Air Peace’s chief of administration and finance, are facing allegations of money laundering and bank fraud after American and Canadian courts issued warrants for their arrest five years ago.
Air Peace responded on 13 October with a statement published on X, saying that although the charges against the CEO have been expanded, Onyema and Eghagha remain innocent of the allegations against them.
Olumide Ohunayo, an aviation analyst, welcomed the airline’s official statement, saying it is a good attempt to calm its customers and service providers. “This is the first time [Air Peace has issued a statement over the allegations]. Every other time this issue has come up, they were just ignoring it,” Ohunayo says.
Onyema, 61, founded Air Peace in 2014. Since then, the airline has grown to become Nigeria’s biggest airline, with calls being made for the Nigerian government to officially designate it as the country’s national carrier.
Fraud allegations
According to the US authorities, Onyema frequently travelled to Atlanta between 2010 and 2018, where he opened several personal and business bank accounts. Within that period, more than $44.9m was allegedly transferred into his Atlanta bank accounts from foreign sources.
In May 2016, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly used a series of export letters of credit to transfer over $20m into Onyema’s Atlanta bank accounts. The letters of credit were purportedly for the purchase of five Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace.
The letters were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals and purported to show that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from a Georgia-registered business, Springfield Aviation Company LLC.
The US authorities allege that the supporting documents were fake, that Springfield Aviation Company LLC was owned by Onyema and managed by a person with no connection to the aviation business and that the company never owned any aircraft.
Upon discovering that Onyema was under investigation for bank fraud, Onyema and Eghagha directed the Springfield Aviation manager, Ebony Mayfield, to sign a key business contract in 2019, but also told her not to date the document. They then falsely dated the document as being signed on 5 May 2016, prior to the bank fraud in 2016, in an attempt to stop the government’s investigation and unfreeze Onyema’s bank accounts, the US authorities said.
Ohunayo says the latest charges against Onyema could cast doubt on Air Peace’s plans to debut flights to New York and Houston by the end of 2024.
“The airline cannot operate with this indictment,” he says.
Onyema and Eghagha’s indictments
On 19 November 2019, Onyema and Eghagha, 42, were indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, three counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit credit application fraud, and three counts of credit application fraud.
Onyema was additionally charged with 27 counts of money laundering, and Eghagha with one count of aggravated identity theft.
Both have now been charged with a superseding indictment alleging an additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Onyema denies the charges. When the charges surfaced in 2019, he said the US government “will find no dirt on me because I have never conducted business with any illegalities”.
Despite his claims, the Air Peace CEO continues to evade the US courts. In November 2019, courts in the US and Canada issued warrants for his arrest after a grand jury indictment.
Evacuating stranded Nigerians
But in Nigeria, Onyema remains a local hero, largely stemming from his use of his airline to evacuate Nigerians stranded abroad, at no cost to them. Last year, he provided aircraft for evacuating Nigerians from Sudan during the war in that country. In 2019, he also used Air Peace to evacuate over 500 Nigerians from South Africa at the height of the xenophobic attacks.
Jide Ojo, a public affairs analyst, says the Air Peace CEO has built a great reputation in Nigeria and evading justice would be a dent in his image. “It’s best for him to go to the US to prove his innocence,” Ojo says. “It does not speak well for someone so influential in the Nigerian aviation industry to be seen to be a fugitive.”
Ohunayo says Onyema’s philanthropy has attracted a lot of support from Nigerians, who cannot close their eyes to his good deeds and sacrifice. “But when it comes to legal issues, this goes beyond emotions, and reverence,” he says. “What we can only do is support the airline while he tries to sort out the legal issues.”
In 2022, a US court sentenced Mayfield to three years probation for her role in fraud. Mayfield pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges and, as a result, escaped prison sentence. At the time, several prominent Nigerian newspapers reported that Mayfield’s sentencing meant that Onyema had been cleared of all the charges against him. The report was found to be untrue.
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