U.S. Court issues warrant of arrest for Air Peace boss, Allen Onyeama, freezes his $14m

An American magistrate of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, has issued a warrant of arrest against Allen Onyema of Air Peace Limited for alleged money laundering and bank fraud in the United States.

According to PremiumTimes, the warrant was signed by Justin Anand on November 19. The warrant authorised U.S. Marshals Service to take Mr Onyema into custody.

The U.S. and Nigeria have a mutual legal assistance policy that allows both countries to extradite suspects facing criminal charges. Several Nigerians have been sent to the U.S. to stand trial for alleged fraud.

Also, the United States authorities have frozen about $14.2 million in bank accounts linked to companies registered by him.

Court 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. .

Mr Onyema has however maintained his innocence.