Does it appear we won't find business men from Nigeria whose hands are clean in terms of criminal inclination? Does it also suggest that most of them have actually made it through without hammer on the table because they have actually being exploiting the weakness of our judiciary and their power to avoid criminal prosecution? Allen Oyemma still stands pure until proven guilty by the court but this can be a co-founder admitting pleading guilty to the US judicatory. It's just a matter of your time it'll be extended to the Air Peace boss. Ebony Mayfield, a co-conspirator in an alleged $20 million fraud involving the founding father of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has pleaded guilty. Ms Mayfield pleaded guilty to at least one of the eight counts filed against her by the U.S. government at the Northern District court of Georgia, in Atlanta, on June 29.
The fraud allegedly spearheaded by Mr Onyema was allegedly perpetrated under the practice of obtaining a unit to shop for aircraft for Air Peace, a frontline Nigerian airline, in the U.S. Ms Mayfield was accused of assisting Mr Onyema to facilitate the $20 million bank fraud between May 2016 and February 2018 when she worked because the manager for Springfield Aviation Company LLC, owned by the Air Peace founder. The U.S. prosecutors accused her of signing and submitting the deceptive documents utilized by Mr Onyema to perpetrate the bank fraud within the U.S.
Ms Mayfield, who was arrested on June 7, 2019, for her alleged function within the alleged scheme, had previously pleaded clean-handed to all or any eight charges filed against her in December 2019. Her appearance at the judicial court was in March this year, rescheduled to begin on August 8. But weeks before the appearance date, she changed her plea from guiltless to guilty when she appeared before the jurist, Eleanor Ross, on June 29. A copy of the appeal agreement she and her lawyer signed with U.S. prosecutors shows she specifically pleaded guilty to Count 5, which may be a conspiracy to commit application fraud. Her Defendant (Ebony Mayfield) accepts that she is pleading guilty because she is of course guilty of the crime(s) charged in Count 5,” a duplicate of the plea agreement obtained by PREMIUM TIMES read partly.
Attractive sentence
She risks up to 5 years’ jail term supported the plea agreement. Five years’ imprisonment is that the highest jail term provided for in Title 18, the U.S Code Section 371, under which she was levied with the offence in Count 5. However, there are indications that she would get but five years at her sentencing .The timeline being September 21. The appeal agreement mentioned the fact that if her “cooperation” with the govt. continues to modify as “solid assistance”, prosecutors will file a motion to take a downward deviation from the applicable guideline range. The U.S. federal prosecutors in Northern Georgia also agreed on not bringing additional charges against the defendant except charges associated with violent criminal activity supporting any information provided by the Defendant in reference to the co-operation that wasn't known to the govt. before the co-operation.
Other penalties as Ms Mayfield appeals guilty.
Aside the danger of a maximum five years jail term she faces, the plea agreement also recommends she be fined $250,000, or twice the gain or twice the loss whichever is greatest. She will also have to recompense any or all victims of the offence(s) and relevant conduct. As at when due and payable immediately. The plea agreement also recommends the forfeiture of any and every one proceeds from the commission of the offence and any and every one property used or intended to be accustomed facilitate the offence. She will also be subjected to a compulsory revenue enhancement of $100, due and payable immediately. She also, by pleading guilty, gave up the proper to plead guiltless, the proper to be tried by a jury, and therefore the right to appeal against her conviction. If she isn't a U.S. citizen, she stands the danger of being expelled from the country after completing her jail term. But Manubir Arora, Ms Mayfield’s lawyer, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that his client may be a U.S citizen and per se is free from being far from the country.
Alleged Fraud: Prosecutors mentioned that Mr Onyema did employed Ms Mayfield to act as a manager of his Springfield Aviation Company LLC, which he allegedly used for perpetrating the alleged $20 million fraud in the middle of May 2016 and February 2018. Springfield Aviation, consistent with court documents, was established by Mr Onyema within the U.S State of Georgia in April 2016 purportedly to focused in “the wholesaling, trading/ and sale of business aircraft and parts”. Prosecutors say Ms Mayfield was employed as a manager of Springfield Aviation with the role of going in aviation-related contracts on behalf of the firm, without proper education, training, or licensing within the review and valuation of aircraft, including aircraft components. In the middle of November 2016 and October 2017, prosecutors mentioned that, Mr Onyema applied for export letters of credit to cause the transfer of funds from a Nigerian checking account to Springfield Aviation’s checking account, “purportedly to fund the procurement of aircraft by Air Peace from Springfield Aviation’s account. Mr Onyema and Air Peace Limited’s leader of management and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, also face 36 charges at the U.S. court in reference to the alleged illegitimate enterprise. But they need yet to point out up or send a lawyer to represent them in court.