The United States authorities have frozen about $14.2 million in bank accounts linked to companies registered by Allen Onyema, the chairman of Air Peace Limited.
Onyema and Ejiroghene Eghagha, Air Peace’s head of finance and administration, were recently indicted for alleged money laundering and bank fraud in the United States. Both suspects strongly deny the allegations and said they looked forward to proving their innocence in court.
The charges were first made public by the United States Department of Justice on Friday night. The charges said Onyema used several companies he set up in the U.S. to launder funds and commit bank fraud through issuance of counterfeit letters of credit.
Some of the companies’ bank accounts in the U.S. and Canada have been frozen with their substantial balances as part of the investigation, court documents showed. The documents showed that $4,017,852.51 was seized from JP Morgan Chase Bank account number ending in 5512 held in the name of Springfield Aviation Company, LLC.
Another $4,593,842.05 held in Bank of Montreal with account number ending 7523 in the name of Springfield Aviation Inc. was also seized. American government also traced and seized $5,634,842.04 held in Bank of Montreal with account number ending in 515 in the name of Bluestream Aero Services, Inc.
