A United States court has reissued an order for the arrest of Allen Onyema, the founder and CEO of Air Peace Limited, over a $20 million bank fraud case that has been pending against him for five years.
The Federal District Court for Northern Georgia, Atlanta, renewed the arrest warrant on 9 October, following the addition of more charges to the case against Mr Onyema and his co-defendant – Ejiroghene Eghagha, the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance.
US authorities filed the superseding indictment on 8 October, alleging new counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The two counts added to the pre-existing 36 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, credit application fraud, and identity theft. The superseding indictment brought the counts to 38.
On the day the superseding indictment was filed, Assistant US Attorney Christopher Huber filed for a new arrest warrant after the first one issued against Mr Onyema in 2019.
On the following day, 9 October, a deputy clerk of the court signed and delivered the new arrest warrant to the US Marshal, the American body that carries out the arrest of fugitives.
Previous arrest warrants
It will be recalled that preparatory to the filing of the charges in 2019, Russell Vineyard, a magistrate at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, issued a corresponding warrant of arrest for Messrs Onyema and Eghagha in Canada.
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