CEO of Nigerian Airline indicted for money laundering

Atlanta – The founder of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, Allen Ifechukwu Athan Onyema, has been indicted on bank fraud and money laundering charges. The executive is accused of moving more than $20 million from Nigeria through United States bank accounts in a scheme involving false documents based on the purchase of airplanes.

Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance has also been charged with bank fraud and committing aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme.

Onyema, age 56, and Eghagha, age 37, both of Lagos, Nigeria, were indicted on November 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 also charged with one count of aggravated identity theft.

“Allen Onyema’s status as a wealthy businessman turned out to be a fraud,” Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Atlanta Division Robert J. Murphy stated in a press release. “He corrupted the U.S. banking system, but his trail of deceit and trickery came to a skidding halt.”

The government’s case:

Onyema, a Nigerian citizen and businessman, is the founder and Chairman of several organizations that purport to promote peace across Nigeria, including the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development, and All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited.

Beginning in 2010, Onyema began travelling frequently to Atlanta, where he opened several personal and business bank accounts. Between 2010 and 2018, more than $44.9 million was allegedly transferred into his Atlanta-based accounts from foreign sources.

Onyema is also the CEO and Chairman of Nigerian airline Air Peace, which he founded in 2013. In years following the founding of Air Peace, he traveled to the United States and purchased multiple airplanes for the airline. However, more than $3 million of the funds used to purchase the aircraft allegedly came from bank accounts for Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development, All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited, and Every Child Limited.

Beginning in approximately May 2016, Onyema, together with Eghagha, allegedly used a series of export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer more than $20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema. The letters of credit were purportedly to fund the purchase of five separate Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace. The letters were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals proving that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a business registered in Georgia.

According to the DEA, Springfield Aviation Company LLC, which is owned by Onyema and managed by a person with no connection to the aviation business, never owned the aircraft, and the company that allegedly drafted the appraisals did not exist.

Eghagha allegedly directed the Springfield Aviation manager to sign and send false documents to banks and even using the manager’s identity to further the fraud. After Onyema received the money in the United States, he allegedly laundered over $16 million of the proceeds of the fraud by transferring it to other accounts.