The founder of a Nigerian airline has been charged in a superseding indictment with obstruction of justice.
According to federal prosecutors, Allen Onyema, 61, of Lagos, Nigeria, the chairman, CEO, and founder of Air Peace, faces charges he submitted false documents to the government to end an investigation of him that resulted in earlier charges of bank fraud and money laundering. Ejiroghene Eghagha, 42, of Lagos, Nigeria, the airline’s chief of administration and finance, was also charged for participating in the scheme and related to earlier bank fraud counts.
Prosecutors allege Onyema often traveled to Atlanta, where he opened personal and business bank accounts. More than $44.9 million was allegedly transferred into his Atlanta-based accounts from foreign sources.
Starting in about May 2016, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly used export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer more than $20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts Onyema controlled. The letters were purported to fund Air Peace’s purchase of five Boeing 737 passenger planes from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a Georgia-registered entity.
However, prosecutors say the letters were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale and allegedly fake appraisals. Onyema owned Springfield Aviation, which was managed on his behalf by someone without a connection to the aviation business.
Springfield Aviation never owned the aircraft.
In May 2019, after discovering that he was under investigation for bank fraud, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly directed the Springfield Aviation manager to sign a key business contract. The duo, prosecutors allege, also specifically told her to not date the document.
In October 2019, Onyema allegedly caused his attorneys to present that same contract, which prosecutors say was falsely dated May 5, 2016, before the alleged bank fraud, to try and stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts.
Onyema and Eghagha were indicted on Nov. 19, 2019, 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 also charged with 27 counts of money laundering, and Eghagha was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft.
On Oct. 8, they were both charged in a superseding indictment alleging an additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, was founded in 2013.
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