How Harry and Meghan were welcomed to Nigeria by a fugitive airline boss wanted in the US over $20M money laundering operation

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were welcomed to Nigeria final week by a fugitive who has been federally indicted in the United States for allegedly orchestrating a $20million money laundering and financial institution fraud scheme, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Air Peace CEO and Chairman, Dr. Allen Onyema, whose airline the royals took for his or her flight from the nation’s capital Abuja into its largest metropolis Lagos on May 12 was a key member of the welcoming committee that met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they touched down on the tarmac as a part of their three-day-tour of Nigeria.

Dressed in navy and carrying shades and a crimson kufi hat, Onyema was considered one of a small group of dignitaries, which included senior army and authorities officers, photographed alongside the Sussexes as they deboarded their Air Peace plane. 

Founded by Onyema simply over a decade in the past, Air Peace flies internationally and is the largest airline in West Africa.

Now, DailyMail.com has completely discovered that the 59-year-old businessman is a wanted man in the United States, going through a number of expenses linked to tens of millions of {dollars}’ value of alleged fraud set down in a federal indictment filed in November 2019.

The indictment, obtained by DailyMail.com, accuses Onyema of allegedly ‘utilizing his standing as a distinguished enterprise chief and airline government to launder greater than $20million from Nigeria by means of US financial institution accounts’.

There isn’t any suggestion that both Harry or Meghan were conscious of Onyema’s historical past earlier than they met him.

DailyMail.com additionally understands that the couple had deliberate to use a totally different airline however plans were modified at the final minute. 

The expenses were filed by former US Attorney Byung J ‘BJay’ Pak who has since left workplace. The case is now being pursued by US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan who took over the function in 2022.

Speaking at the time of submitting Pak mentioned of the man who gladhanded the Sussex’s throughout their ‘non-public’ tour of his nation, ‘Onyema allegedly leveraged his standing as a distinguished enterprise chief and airline government whereas utilizing falsified paperwork to commit fraud.’

Robert Murphy, the agent in cost of the DEA Atlanta discipline division added: ‘Allan Onyema’s standing as a rich businessman turned out to be a fraud. He corrupted the US banking system, however his path of deceit and trickery got here to a skidding halt.’

The indictment goes on to allege that Onyema arrange varied ‘harmless sounding multi-million-dollar asset purchases which were nothing greater than alleged fronts for his rip-off’.

It states that Onyema is the founder and chairman of a number of organizations throughout Nigeria, together with the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development and All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited.

Beginning in 2010 he started touring often to Atlanta the place he opened a number of private and enterprise financial institution accounts.

Between 2010 and 2018 over $44.9million was allegedly transferred into his Atlanta-based accounts from international sources.

Onyema based Air Peace in 2013 and, in accordance to the indictment, traveled to the United States in following years and bought a number of airplanes.

However, the Department of Justice alleges, over $3million of the funds used to buy the plane, ‘allegedly got here from financial institution accounts for the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development, All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited and Every Child Limited.’

Air Peace’s Chief of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, has additionally been charged together with Onyema. 

Both males were charged on one depend of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, three counts of financial institution fraud, one depend of conspiracy to commit credit score software fraud and three counts of credit score software fraud.

In addition, Onyema was charged with 27 separate counts of money laundering whereas Eghagha was charged with committing aggravated id theft in reference to the scheme.

Investigators allege that, starting in roughly May 2016, the two males used a sequence of export letters of credit score to trigger banks to switch greater than $20million into Atlanta-based financial institution accounts managed by Onyema. The letters of credit score were purportedly to fund the buy of 5 Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace.

The letters were supported by paperwork equivalent to buy agreements, payments of sale, and value determinations proving that Air Peace was buying the plane from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a enterprise registered in Georgia. But, in accordance to investigators, the supporting paperwork were pretend.

Springfield Aviation Company LLC, which is owned by Onyema and managed by a individual with no connection to the aviation enterprise, by no means owned the plane in the first place and the firm that allegedly drafted the value determinations didn’t exist.

In October 2022 American citizen Ebony Mayfield, a former employees member of Springfield Aviation Company was sentenced to three years’ probation and fined $4,000 for her function in the alleged scheme after expenses were filed in opposition to her by the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

The expenses in opposition to Onyema and Eghagha stay pending with each males sustaining their innocence.

Neither man responded to calls and emails to Air Peace’s places of work in Nigeria and the UK.