Over the years I’ve written extensively about Air Peace, which is Nigeria’s largest private airline, having flown since 2013. The airline operates a fleet of around 30 aircraft, ranging from regional jets to Boeing 777s, and even wants to fly to the United States.
The company’s 61-year-old CEO, Allen Ifechukwu Athan Onyema, has often been praised as one of Nigeria’s most brilliant entrepreneurs and most generous philanthropists. However, in 2019, Onyema was indicted in the United States for bank fraud and money laundering. Well, now he has another indictment coming his way, for obstruction of justice related to the previous investigation.
In this post:
Air Peace CEO previously indicted for bank fraud & money laundering
For some background, in November 2019, Onyema was indicted for bank fraud and money laundering by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. According to the indictment, between 2010 and 2018, Onyema traveled frequently to Atlanta, where he opened several personal and business bank accounts.
More than $44.9 million was transfered into his Atlanta-based bank accounts from foreign sources. Beginning around May 2016, he used a series of export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer more than $20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by him. The letters were purportedly to fund the purchase of five separate Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace, and were supported by purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals.
The documents purported to show that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a business registered in Georgia. However, the supporting documents were allegedly fake — Springfield Aviation Company LLC was owned by Onyema, and managed on his behalf by a person with no connection to the aviation business, and Springfield Aviation never owned the aircraft.
The company that allegedly drafted the appraisals did not exist. The Springfield Aviation manager was directed to sign and send false documents to banks, and even use the manager’s identity to further the fraud. After Onyema received the money in the United States, he allegedly laundered over $16 million of the proceeds of the fraud by transferring it to other accounts.
Air Peace CEO now indicted for obstruction related to investigation
Fast forward to October 2024, as Onyema has now been indicted for obstruction of justice by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. What happened here? According to the indictment, in May 2019, upon discovering that he was under investigation, Onyema directed the Springfield Aviation manager to sign a key business contract, but also specifically told her to not date the document.
In October 2019, Onyema allegedly caused his attorneys to present that same contract, now falsely dated as being signed on May 5, 2016 (prior to the bank fraud that began in 2016), to the government in an effort to stop the investigation and unfreeze his bank accounts.
Bottom lie
The CEO of Nigeria’s largest private airline is facing quite the charges in the United States. In 2019, he was indicted for bank fraud and money laundering, and now he has been indicted for obstruction of justice.
This involves tens of millions of dollars that went through US bank accounts, reportedly to acquire some Boeing 737s. However, the “aviation company” involved didn’t actually have anything to do with aircraft, and was controlled by the CEO as well. Then when he realized he was being investigated, he directed his people to falsify documents, to make it look like he was doing nothing wrong.
Something tells me that Air Peace won’t be getting permission to fly to the United States anytime soon…
What do you make of this Air Peace CEO indictment?
Well, obviously, most thriving business owners in Nigeria are fraudsters here and abroad.
That is why I am never involved is their praises.
I am only happy the US is not here where connections distort justice.
Let him face the law there.
Come to think of it, He knows "Jussie Smollett" very well!
I think he's just a misunderstood prince.
He cannot be charged by us govt
He did not borrow money from any financial institution in USA
He is accountableloans and answerable to foreign sources only from whom he loans it is wrong
It's Nigeria - standard operating procedure.
It's Nigeria - standard operating procedure.
I wonder about the company's "integrity" as it applies to aircraft maintenance, let alone ripping pax off as well ....
They'd better not get authority to fly to the US, and hopefully their US based assets are seized.
@bossa - In 2019, the Accident Investigation Bureau in Nigeria (their equivalent of the NTSB) wrote a scathing public statement about Air Peace for "persistent failure to report serious incidents and accidents". The airline's management was cited for "willfully failing to comply" with the Bureau's regulations, and it was further stated that the management "lacks the full understanding of their statutory mandates"
I have never seen a more damning statement by a safety regulator anywhere...
@bossa - In 2019, the Accident Investigation Bureau in Nigeria (their equivalent of the NTSB) wrote a scathing public statement about Air Peace for "persistent failure to report serious incidents and accidents". The airline's management was cited for "willfully failing to comply" with the Bureau's regulations, and it was further stated that the management "lacks the full understanding of their statutory mandates"
I have never seen a more damning statement by a safety regulator anywhere in the world against any airline.
And yet they’re still flying…
Lol how ironic that an airline called air peace would be involved in such scandals
Just thinking of DEI and what it really is. Same irony at play.
How surprising for a Nigerian company. Who would have thought
Yeah, because everyone knows that companies based in the likes of the UK and the USA never engage in such practices.
Nigeria doesn't strike me as an ideal place to do business, but there's little benefit in applying/reinforcing stereotypes of this sort (and there's always the risk of being labelled as racist and ending up wasting energy in a silly culture war).
Stereotypes become so because there's a grain of truth in them; in this case, it's more than a grain. Nigeria is one of the most corrupt places on earth, and this is well known. Facts are not racist.
It’s not a stereotype. The entire society there is corrupt. Call it racist if you wish to so as I don’t like them.
Which is why they couldn’t care less about the reports cited by Sean M