The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has issued an arrest warrant for Air Peace’s Chief of Finance and Administration, Ejiroghene Eghagha.
Described as a fugitive by U.S. authorities, Mrs. Eghagha is wanted for falsifying a contract in an attempt to shield Air Peace CEO, Allen Onyema, from a $20 million money-laundering and wire fraud case that has been ongoing since 2019.
Peoples Gazette reports that the warrant, issued on October 8 by the Clerk of the United States District Court in Georgia, Kevin Weimer, demands that Mrs. Eghagha is taken into custody and presented in court for trial.
Simultaneously, Mr. Onyema faces a new set of charges, including obstructing justice, as a superseding indictment has been filed.
The Air Peace owner’s actions to cover up a multi-million dollar fraud scheme have reignited the 2019 case that initially accused him of bank fraud and wire fraud.
The original charges arose when Mr. Onyema secured letters of credit from U.S. banks in 2017 to repurchase Boeing aircrafts that Air Peace had already bought months earlier, an act resembling money-laundering.
According to the new indictment, “The purpose of the letter of credit was purportedly to fund Air Peace’s purchase of Boeing 28721 from Springfield Aviation, an aircraft already owned by Air Peace that was never owned by Springfield.”
Mr. Onyema, who founded Springfield Aviation in 2016, employed Ebony Mayfield, a woman without any aviation qualifications, to manage the business.
He then purchased five Boeing aircraft and later used letters of credit to fraudulently “pay” Springfield Aviation for the planes he already owned. To strengthen his case, Mr. Onyema submitted fake documentation to bolster his credit applications.
As a result, millions of dollars in Mr. Onyema’s U.S. and Canadian bank accounts were frozen, and he faced forfeiture proceedings initiated by the American government.
To prevent the loss of his funds, Mr. Onyema and Mrs. Eghagha conspired to create a fraudulent “Aircraft Sales and Management Agreement” in May 2019. They backdated the document to make it appear as though the contract had existed before Air Peace’s first aircraft purchase.
Mrs. Eghagha sent an email to Ms. Mayfield, instructing her to sign the forged document without dating it, stating, “Do not date please.”
Following these instructions, Ms. Mayfield signed and returned the contract, which was subsequently forwarded by Mr. Onyema’s attorney to the U.S. Attorney’s office in hopes of dismissing the forfeiture proceedings.
This attempt to falsify records was deemed an obstruction of justice, according to the grand jury.
Investigators subpoenaed Google to access the email records and uncover the conspiracy. The new charges have revived what had become a cold case of money-laundering against Mr. Onyema.
Since 2019, Mr. Onyema has been the subject of an active arrest warrant in the U.S., effectively rendering him a fugitive.
Despite owning an airline that operates international flights, he has avoided travelling to the U.S. and its allied nations for fear of arrest and extradition.
