Air Peace CEO Onyema Faces Additional Fraud Charges in the US

Air Peace CEO, Allen Onyema, is facing new fraud charges in the United States, intensifying legal battles surrounding allegations of financial misconduct linked to his aviation business.

The United States government has filed additional charges in the previously alleged $20 million bank fraud case involving Allen Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace.

Onyema, the founder of a leading Nigerian airline, has consistently denied any wrongdoing; however, since 2019 he and a co-defendant have been wanted in the United States on bank fraud charges filed at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.

“The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced in a statement on Friday that both individuals were charged in a superseding indictment on October 8, 2024. The charges included an additional count of obstruction of justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.”

The office stated that Mr. Onyema is charged with “obstructing justice by providing false documents to the government in an attempt to halt an investigation, which had previously led to accusations of bank fraud and money laundering against him.”

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Prosecutors further claimed that he provided fraudulent documents to U.S. authorities in 2019, aiming to halt the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts connected to the alleged $20 million bank fraud.

Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, who is accused of being involved in both the alleged obstruction scheme and earlier bank fraud charges, serves as a co-defendant alongside Mr. Onyema in this case.

“US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan stated that Onyema, purportedly using his airline company as a front to perpetrate fraud against the United States banking system, allegedly engaged in further fraudulent activities alongside his co-defendant in an unsuccessful effort to obstruct the government’s investigation into his actions.”

While Mr. Onyema remained a fugitive in the United States, an alleged accomplice in the $20 million bank fraud case was sentenced by an American court in September 2022.

In its decision, the US District Court sentenced Ebony Mayfield, an American woman, to three years of probation for her involvement in facilitating the purported fraud.