The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia has repudiated Nigerian media reports that the case against Air Peace (P4, Lagos) chairman/CEO Allen Onyema and the airline's chief of administration and finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, have been withdrawn.
"The case against Allen Onyema and Ejiroghene Eghagha has not been dismissed, and [...] the two were charged in a superseding indictment for obstruction of justice" confirmed the public affairs office in response to a query from ch-aviation.
Arrest warrants have been issued in the US for Onyema and Eghagha following their indictment for obstruction of justice. They are accused of submitting false documents to halt a federal investigation that led to 35 charges of bank fraud and money laundering in 2019.
Yet, on October 22, several Nigerian media outlets claimed the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia had "exonerated" Onyema of any business fraud. The reports claimed the court found "no loss to any bank in the indictment".
The Nigerian media repeated old statements by law firm AO Alegho and Co, made in 2022 following the sentencing of US citizen Ebony Mayfield to three years' probation and a USD4,000 fine. Mayfield had pleaded guilty to signing and submitting fake documents in connection with an Air Peace aircraft transaction. She was a former employee of Springfield Aviation Company, a US company owned by Onyema, that is implicated in the fake USD20 million transaction for five B737s in May 2016.
