Airline CEO, founder charged with bank fraud, pumping $44M in Atlanta bank accounts

ATLANTA — The CEO and founder of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, has been charged in a sweeping indictment that also includes the airline’s chief of administration and finance.

Federal prosecutors say Allen Onyema, 61, used his airline company as a cover to commit fraud in the United States. While he was being investigated, prosecutors say he committed more fraud to throw off the investigation.

Air Peace was founded in 2013, but prosecutors say that Onyema was traveling to Atlanta frequently between 2010 and 2018 and opened several bank accounts.

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Over those eight years, Onyema allegedly pumped $44.9 million into his Atlanta bank accounts.

In May 2016, Onyema and Chief of Administration and Finance Ejiroghene Eghagha, 42, allegedly used several export letters of credit to get banks to transfer more than $20 million to Onyema’s Atlanta bank accounts. The letters were supposedly to fund the purchase of five Boeing 737 planes from a Georgia aviation company for Air Peace.

Investigators learned that the Georgia aviation company was actually owned by Onyema and managed on his behalf by someone with no connection to the aviation business who was convinced to sign the paperwork. Onyema allegedly then laundered $16 million of that money.

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When he learned he was under investigation in May 2019, Onyema had the aviation company manager sign, but not date, a business contract. When he presented the contract to attorneys, it had a May 2016 date on it prior to the alleged fraud.

Both Onyema and Eghagha were indicted in 2019 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. Last week, both men were also indicted for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Channel 2 Action News has reached out to Air Peace for a statement, but has not heard back.

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