The United States government has added more charges on the earlier alleged $20 million bank fraud case against Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace.
Although Onyema, founder of the major Nigerian airline, has denied wrongdoing, he has been wanted in the US over the bank fraud charges pending against him and a co-defendant at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta since 2019.
“On 8 October 2024, they were both charged in a superseding indictment alleging an additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice,” the US Attorney Office, Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement on Friday.
The office said Mr Onyema is accused of “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.”
Prosecutors also alleged that he submitted false documents to US authorities in 2019 in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts regarding the alleged $20 million bank fraud.
Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, accused of participating in the alleged obstruction scheme, as well as in the earlier bank fraud counts, is Mr Onyema’s co-defendant in the case.
“After allegedly using his airline company as a cover to commit fraud on the United States’ banking system, Onyema, along with his co-defendant, allegedly committed additional crimes of fraud in a failed attempt to derail the government’s investigation of his conduct,” the statement quoted US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.
While Mr Onyema remained wanted in the United States, an alleged conspirator in the $20 million bank fraud case was sentenced by an American court in September 2022.
In the decision, the US District Court sentenced Ebony Mayfield, an American woman, to three years’ probation for her roles in helping to facilitate the alleged fraud.
(PREMIUM TIMES)