Ololade Adeyanju/
The United Sates authorities may seek the extradition of Allen Onyema, founder of Nigerian airline, Air Peace, and the airline’s head of finance and administration, Ejiroghene Eghagha, following their indictment for over $20 million bank fraud and money laundering if they refuse to make themselves available for arraignment in a US court.
A US-based attorney, Mr. Solomon Abah, disclosed this in an interview with NewsmakersNG today.
The charges said Onyema used several companies he set up in the US to launder funds and commit bank fraud through issuance of counterfeit letters of credit.
According to Abah, who is Director of Legal Services at Virginia Department of Social Services, the indicted person or persons are still presumed innocent at this stage because an indictment simply means that a judge has determined that the prosecution has presented enough evidence that they might have committed the crime and should be tried.
“The information in the indictment will be read to them in open court and the judge will ask whether they understood the charges. If they say yes, they will be asked to enter a plea. They can then enter a plea of guilty, not guilty or no contest.
“If they plead not guilty, the case will be set for trial. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, the judge might set a bail. Once they post (meet the terms of) the bail, they will go home and await the trial. If your indictment is for a serious crime and there is a risk that you might flee and and not return for the trial, the judge may order that you be held (or remanded) in custody pending the trial,” Abah further stated.
Asked what happens if the indicted persons fail to show up for their trial, Abah said the US government would either seek their extradition or put out an international alert for their arrest anytime they travel outside Nigeria.
“They can seek to extradite him. A Nigerian court will have to enter an extradition order and he can be extradited to stand trial. If Nigerian courts refuse to extradite him, his name might be entered in the Interpol system. Anytime he travels to a country with extradition treaty with the US, he will be arrested and brought to the US,” Abah said.
Abah added that the indicted persons’ assets in US may also be frozen.
Already, the US authorities have reportedly frozen about $14.2 million in bank accounts linked to companies registered by Onyema after the charges were first made public by the United States Department of Justice on Friday night.
Court documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES show that some of the companies’ bank accounts in the U.S. and Canada had been frozen with their substantial balances as part of the investigation.
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.
American law enforcement authorities indicated in the charge document that efforts had commenced to secure final forfeitures of the funds.
Both suspects have strongly deny the allegations and said they looked forward to proving their innocence in court.
In a statement yesterday, Onyema said: “As the press statement clearly stated, these are indictment that only contains charges.
“I am innocent of all charges and the US government will find no dirt on me because I have never conducted business with any illegalities.
“Be rest assured that I also have my lawyers on this and these mere allegations will be refuted. I never laundered money in my life, neither have I committed bank fraud anywhere in the world. Every Kobo I transferred to the US for aircraft purchase went through the Central Bank of Nigeria LC regime and all were used for the same purpose.
“The American companies that received the funds are still in business. I never took a penny from any US bank or Nigerian bank. I am willing to defend my innocence in the US courts.”
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