Air Peace CEO To Be Arrested over Multimillion-dollar Fraud
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has issued an arrest warrant for Chief of Finance and Administration of Air Peace airlines, Ejiroghene Eghagha,
Mrs Eghagha, described as a fugitive by the U.S. government, is wanted for manufacturing a fake agreement to exonerate her boss, Allen Onyema, from a $20 million money-laundering and wire fraud case that has lingered in the American court since 2019.
The Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta under Kevin Weimer issued the warrant on October 8.
The warrant that branded Mrs Eghagha a fugitive, ordered that she be taken into custody and produced in court before prosecutors could start the trial.
Mrs Eghagha’s arrest warrant was issued just as a superseded indictment was slammed against Mr Onyema, the Air Peace owner, whose attempt to cover up a multi-million dollar fraud scheme has landed him a fresh set of criminal charges.
In 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s office filed a slew of charges ranging from bank fraud and wire fraud against Mr Onyema who in 2017 raised fresh letters of credit to purchase the same Boeing aircrafts that he had already bought months prior, in a manner akin to money-laundering.
“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,” the indictment filed on October 8 stated.
Mr Onyema established Springfield Aviation in 2016 and hired Ebony Mayfield who had no Aviation qualification to manage the business.
He purchased five Boeing aircrafts.
Months later, Air Peace raised letters of credit to U.S. banks to pay Springfield (the company he created) for the same aircrafts that he had already bought months prior. He submitted fake supporting documents to strengthen his credit applications.
