A U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, has filed charges against the Chairman and CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, for alleged obstruction of justice in a case of submitting false documents to stop a federal investigation.
Onyema who was charged along with the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, had already faced charges of bank fraud and money laundering in the same court on charges of submitting false documents in a bid to thwart a federal investigation into their activities.
A superseding indictment released by the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, Ryan Buchanan, on Friday detailing the fresh charges, showed that both Onyema and Eghagha have been under scrutiny since 2019 for alleged money laundering with the Air Peace CEO accused of moving over $20 million from Nigeria through U.S. bank accounts using fraudulent documents under the guise of purchasing airplanes while Eghagha is facing charges of aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme.
“Allen Onyema, the Chairman, CEO, and founder of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, has been charged in a superseding indictment with obstruction of justice for submitting false documents to the government in an effort to end an investigation of him that resulted in earlier charges of bank fraud and money laundering,” the indictment said.
“Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, was also charged for participating in the obstruction scheme, as well as in the earlier bank fraud counts.”
According to Buchanan, the two defendants also attempted to obstruct justice by committing additional fraudulent acts aimed at disrupting the investigation.
“Onyema, using his airline company as a cover, allegedly defrauded the U.S. banking system and later, along with his co-defendant, committed further crimes in a failed attempt to derail the government’s probe into his conduct,” Buchanan said in the statement.
“The diligence of our federal investigative partners exposed the defendants’ alleged obstruction scheme, ensuring that they can now be held accountable for their aggravated conduct,” he said.
The attorney also stated that further investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s office revealed that from May 2016, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly employed a series of export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer over $20 million into Atlanta-based accounts controlled by Onyema.
“These funds were purportedly for the purchase of five Boeing 737 passenger planes for Air Peace. The documents presented to support these transactions, including purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals, were allegedly fake.
“Investigations uncovered that the planes were to be acquired from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a Georgia-registered business owned by Onyema. However, Springfield Aviation never owned the aircraft, and the company was managed by a person with no ties to the aviation industry,” it added.
