Air Peace Boss Allen Onyema Charged with Obstruction of Justice by US Government

Air Peace CEO, Allen Onyema, has been accused by the US government of obstruction of justice in an ongoing legal battle. The amended charges were filed by the US attorney’s office in the Northern District of Georgia, further intensifying the legal scrutiny surrounding the Nigerian airline boss.

The case, which has been under investigation since 2019, originally focused on allegations of money laundering. Onyema is accused of moving over $20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts using fraudulent documentation to purchase aircraft. Ejiroghene Eghagha, Air Peace’s chief of administration and finance, is also implicated, facing charges of aggravated identity theft.

According to Ryan Buchanan, US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Onyema and Eghagha allegedly submitted false documents in an attempt to obstruct the federal investigation against them. Buchanan claims the defendants engaged in a scheme to impede justice by falsifying records related to aircraft purchases involving a company owned by Onyema.

The US attorney’s office stated that Onyema used Air Peace as a front to defraud the US banking system. The charges allege that from 2016, Onyema and Eghagha used letters of credit to transfer funds into bank accounts based in Atlanta, purportedly to acquire Boeing 737 planes. However, it was later revealed that the documents backing the transactions were allegedly fake, and the company involved, Springfield Aviation, was owned by Onyema himself.

Despite these serious allegations, Onyema and Eghagha remain innocent until proven guilty, with the US government bearing the burden of proof.