A United States court has reissued an arrest warrant for Allen Onyema, the founder and CEO of Air Peace Limited, in connection with a $20 million bank fraud case that has been ongoing for five years.
The federal district court for Northern Georgia, Atlanta, renewed the arrest warrant on October 9, 2024, following the addition of new charges against Onyema and his co-defendant, Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance.
The new charges, filed as part of a superseding indictment on October 8, 2024, include obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
These charges were added to the original 36 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, credit application fraud, and identity theft, bringing the total to 38 counts.
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The superseding indictment prompted Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Huber to request a new arrest warrant for Onyema, following the first warrant issued in 2019.
On October 9, a deputy clerk of the court signed and delivered the new warrant to the U.S. Marshals Service, the agency responsible for executing the arrest.
It should be noted that prior to the charges being filed in 2019, a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued an arrest warrant for Onyema and Eghagha in Canada.
The warrant was sought to enable Canadian law enforcement authorities to take the suspects into custody if they were found within their jurisdiction.
A subsequent arrest warrant was also issued in November 2019 by another U.S. magistrate judge, Justin Anand, authorizing the U.S. Marshals to apprehend both men.
The charges against Onyema and Eghagha stem from their alleged involvement in moving suspicious funds from Nigeria to U.S. bank accounts between 2017 and 2018.
These funds were allegedly disguised as payments for aircraft purchases. U.S. authorities claim that the two men organized the fraudulent transfer of funds by applying for export letters of credit to move money from a Nigerian bank account to the U.S.-based Springfield Aviation LLC, a company owned by Onyema, between 2016 and 2017.
Prosecutors allege that the funds were intended to purchase aircraft from Springfield Aviation, but no such aircraft were ever sold by the company.
The defendants are accused of making false statements, overvaluing property, and submitting fabricated documents, such as purchase agreements and bills of sale, to U.S. banks in support of the letters of credit.
Ms. Ebony Mayfield, a woman with no background in aviation, was allegedly recruited by Onyema to act as a manager for Springfield Aviation in 2016.
Prosecutors claim she signed and submitted the false documents to the banks at the direction of Eghagha. Mayfield was sentenced to three years’ probation in October 2022 for her role in the scheme.
The U.S. government also alleges that Onyema used Springfield Aviation to facilitate large transfers of funds from his Nigerian accounts to the U.S., including a $15 million transfer to his personal account in 2017.
These transactions formed the basis for multiple money laundering charges.
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In May 2019, after learning he was under investigation, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly instructed Mayfield to sign a key business contract but not to date it.
Later, in October 2019, they allegedly submitted the contract, now falsely dated, to the government to halt the investigation and unfreeze their accounts.
This act led to the additional charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia issued a statement accusing Onyema and Eghagha of obstructing justice by submitting false documents to end the investigation into their alleged $20 million bank fraud.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lisa Fontanette from the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Atlanta Field Office added that Onyema and his co-defendants allegedly used the U.S. banking system to hide the origins of their illicit funds.
In response, both Onyema and Air Peace’s legal team have consistently maintained his innocence. Air Peace issued a statement emphasizing that these are mere allegations and that the case is still in court.
The airline stressed that it remains confident in Onyema’s eventual exoneration through due process and reassured the public that the legal proceedings would not affect the airline’s operations, which continue without disruption.
“We remain fully committed to delivering top-tier services to our customers, and the safety and reliability of Air Peace will not be compromised,” the airline said.
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