A United States court has imposed three years' probation and a USD4,000 fine on a US citizen who pleaded guilty to signing and submitting fake documents in connection with an Air Peace (P4, Lagos) aircraft transaction.
Charges against Ebony Mayfield, a former staff member of Springfield Aviation Company, were filed by the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia after an investigation spanning more than three years and involving five US government agencies.
Co-defendants Air Peace Chief Executive Officer Allen Onyema, Chief of Finance and Administration Ejiroghene Eghagha, and Air Peace Limited, together still face 36 counts of fraud and money laundering in the same court but continue to maintain their innocence. Still, the case against them remains in the judicial process, US authorities confirmed to ch-aviation.
Appearing in the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, Mayfield was found guilty of signing and submitting fabricated documents between 2016 and 2018 to facilitate a USD20 million credit disbursement from Nigeria to US bank accounts, ostensibly for Air Peace to purchase five B737s from Springfield Aviation Company, a company owned by Onyema. She initially pleaded not guilty to all eight charges. Still, she pleaded guilty on one count in June after entering into a plea deal that saw the US government drop the seven remaining charges against her, reports Nigeria's Premium Times.
Following Mayfield's sentencing, their law firm, AO Alegho and Co., issued a statement claiming her lenient sentence was proof that there had been "no fraudulent intent in all the Letters of Credit" and that "there was no victim in any way, manner, or form". "All the funds involved were legitimate funds belonging to our clients. There was no loss of money or any damage whatsoever to any third party. The US government admitted in court today that no bank suffered any financial loss in this matter," they stated.
"Our clients never took loans or credit from any US Bank, and Ebony [Mayfield] was never paid the sum of USD20,000 at any time to commit any fraud, as is being peddled by a section of the Nigerian Press," they charged.
"Our clients maintain their innocence in the matter and state that all steps taken in respect of the Letters of Credit were taken in good faith and with legitimate funds. All the aircraft involved were brought into Nigeria and utilised in the operations of Air Peace Limited. There was no victim. There was no loss of funds to any person, and there was no criminal intent whatsoever.
"Our clients' position has been reviewed by various law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, and no evidence of criminality has been established against our clients. Our clients remain resolute in the assertion of innocence," they stated.
ch-aviation approached both Onyema and Eghagha for comment.
They 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. Additionally, Onyema was charged with 27 counts of money laundering, and Eghagha was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to a statement in November 2019 by the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia, Onyema stands charged with bank fraud and money laundering for moving more than USD20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts in a scheme involving false documents based on the purchase of aircraft. Eghagha was charged with bank fraud and committing aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme.
Charges by the US Attorney's Office read as follows: "Around May 2016, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly used a series of export letters of credit to get banks to transfer more than USD20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema. The letters of credit were purported to fund the purchase of five B737 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.
"However, the supporting documents were fake — 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. After Onyema received the money in the US, he allegedly laundered over USD16 million of the proceeds of the fraud by transferring it to other accounts," the US Attorney’s Office said.
