Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were met in Nigeria last week by a fugitive who has been federally charged in the United States with allegedly orchestrating a $20 million bank fraud and money laundering scheme, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Dr. Allen Onyema, CEO and Chairman of Air Peace, whose airline took the royal for its flight from the country’s capital, Abuja, to its largest city, Lagos, on May 12, was a key member of the committee. welcome he met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they landed on the tarmac as part of their three-day tour of Nigeria.
Dressed in navy blue, sunglasses and a red kufi hat, Onyema was part of a small group of dignitaries, including senior military and government officials, photographed alongside the Sussexes as they stepped off their Air Peace plane.
Founded by Onyema just over a decade ago, Air Peace flies internationally and is West Africa’s largest airline.
Now, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively that the 59-year-old businessman is a wanted man in the United States and faces multiple charges related to alleged fraud worth millions of dollars set out in a federal indictment filed in November 2019. .
Dr Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace, was a key member of Harry and Meghan’s welcoming committee when they landed in Nigeria last week. He appears in the photo chatting with the duchess.
Dressed in navy blue, sunglasses and a red kufi hat, Onyema was part of a small group of dignitaries, including senior military and government officials, photographed alongside the Sussexes as they stepped off their Air Peace plane.
The indictment, obtained by DailyMail.com, accuses Onyema of allegedly “using his status as a prominent business leader and airline executive to launder more than $20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts.”
There is no suggestion that Harry or Meghan knew Onyema’s story before meeting him.
DailyMail.com also understands that the couple had planned to use a different airline, but plans changed at the last minute.
The charges were brought by former federal prosecutor Byung J ‘BJay’ Pak, who has since left office. The case is now being handled by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Ryan Buchanan, who took office in 2022.
Speaking at the time of the filing, Pak said of the man who welcomed the Sussexes during their “private” tour of his country: “Onyema allegedly took advantage of his status as a prominent business leader and airline executive while using falsified documents to commit fraud.”
Robert Murphy, the agent in charge of the DEA’s Atlanta field division, added: ‘Allan Onyema’s status as a wealthy businessman turned out to be a fraud. ‘He corrupted the American banking system, but his trail of deceit and deceit was stopped completely.’
The indictment goes on to allege that Onyema organized several “innocent-sounding multi-million dollar asset purchases that were nothing more than alleged fronts for his scam.”
It states that Onyema is the founder and president of several organizations in Nigeria, including the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, the International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development and All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited.
DailyMail.com has learned exclusively that the 59-year-old businessman is wanted in the United States for a bank fraud scheme.
Between 2010 and 2018, more than $44.9 million was allegedly transferred to Onyema’s Atlanta accounts from foreign sources.
There is no indication that Harry or Meghan knew Onyema’s story before meeting him. Meghan appears in the photo being received by Onyema.
Beginning in 2010, he began traveling frequently to Atlanta, where he opened several personal and business bank accounts.
Between 2010 and 2018, more than $44.9 million was allegedly transferred to his Atlanta accounts from foreign sources.
Onyema founded Air Peace in 2013 and, according to the indictment, traveled to the United States in the following years and purchased several planes.
Onyema is accused of using his status as a prominent business leader to launder more than $20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts.
However, the Justice Department alleges that more than $3 million of the funds used to purchase the plane “allegedly came from bank accounts of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, the International Center for Nonviolence and the Development of Peace , All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited.” and Every Child Limited.’
Air Peace’s head of administration and finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, has also been charged alongside Onyema.
Both men were charged with one count 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.
Additionally, Onyema was charged with 27 separate counts of money laundering, while Eghagha was charged with committing aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme.
Investigators allege that beginning in approximately May 2016, the two men used a series of export letters of credit to have banks transfer more than $20 million to Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema. The letters of credit were allegedly intended to finance Air Peace’s purchase of five Boeing 737 airliners.
The letters were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, sales invoices and appraisals that showed Air Peace was purchasing the plane from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a company registered in Georgia. But, according to investigators, the supporting documents were false.
Springfield Aviation Company LLC, owned by Onyema and managed by a person with no connection to the aviation business, never owned the aircraft in the first place and the company that supposedly wrote the appraisals did not exist.
In October 2022, U.S. citizen Ebony Mayfield, a former Springfield Aviation Company staff member, was sentenced to three years of probation and a $4,000 fine for her role in the alleged scheme after the U.S. Attorney for the District North Georgia will file charges against him.
Charges against Onyema and Eghagha remain pending and both maintain their innocence.
Neither responded to calls and emails to Air Peace offices in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
