- The CEO of Nigeria’s Air Peace airline has been charged with obstruction of justice.
- US prosecutors say Allen Onyema submitted false paperwork to the federal authorities to try to curtail a fraud investigation.
- Onyema was charged with monetary establishment fraud and money laundering in 2019.
Allen Onyema, the CEO and founding father of Nigeria’s Air Peace airline, has been charged with obstruction of justice inside the US, together with to earlier costs of monetary establishment fraud and money laundering.
A press launch from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia says that Onyema, 61, was charged with “submitting false paperwork to the federal authorities in an effort to complete an investigation of him” that led to those earlier costs, which had been launched in 2019.
Ejiroghene Eghagha, 42, Air Peace’s chief of administration and finance, was moreover charged with obstruction, the press launch says.
The pair had been indicted in 2019 over allegations that that that they had moved better than $20 million from Nigeria by the use of US monetary establishment accounts via using false paperwork based mostly totally on the acquisition of 5 Boeing 737 planes.
The indictment, seen by Enterprise Insider, says they submitted export letters of credit score rating to fund the purchases, along with supporting purchase agreements, funds of sale, and worth determinations.
Nevertheless prosecutors argue that these paperwork had been fake and that the company supposedly selling the planes, the Georgia-registered company Springfield Aviation, was owned by Onyema and managed by anyone with no connection to the aviation commerce.
“The aircraft that was referenced in each of the export letters of credit score rating was on no account owned or supplied by Springfield Aviation,” the indictment says.
As quickly because the money was inside the US, prosecutors say Onyema laundered over $16 million by shifting it to completely different accounts.
In 2019, investigators then say Onyema, acutely aware he was beneath investigation, instructed the Springfield Aviation supervisor to sign nevertheless not date a enterprise contract.
His attorneys are later talked about to have supplied this doc — which was now dated sooner than the alleged fraud began — to the federal authorities “in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his monetary establishment accounts.”
Following the newest costs, Ryan Buchanan, the US Lawyer for the Northern District of Georgia, talked about: “Onyema allegedly leveraged his standing as a excellent enterprise chief and airline govt whereas using falsified paperwork to commit fraud.”
Andrew Esiebo/Getty Footage for The Archewell Foundation.
Earlier this 12 months, Onyema made headlines after he welcomed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Nigeria.
Harry and Markle flew from Nigeria’s capital Abuja to Lagos on Air Peace in Would possibly, the MailOnline reported on the time.
An unnamed provide close to the pair instructed the Daily Beast that the couple’s journey inside Nigeria had been organized by the Nigerian Chief of Safety Workers.
Enterprise Insider has contacted Air Peace for comment.