Reports falsely claim US court acquits Nigerian airline owner charged with fraud

“Breaking News: The District Court in Atlanta, Georgia has exonerated Allen Onyema, the Chief Executive of Air Peace, of any business fraud (sic),” reads the first post in an X thread that has garnered more than 2,100 shares since it was published on October 22, 2024.

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Screenshot showing the false X post, taken October 24, 2024

Quoting Nigerian law firm Augustine Alegeh & Co., the post states Onyema has been cleared of fraud charges in the district court in Atlanta.

The account also claims the US court only “ordered a probation and $4,000 fine against a former staff of Springfield Aviation Company Inc., Ebony Mayfield (sic)” in its verdict.

Ebony Mayfield is a US bartender and nightclub dancer who testified she was recruited by Onyema to facilitate fraud in her capacity as manager of his Atlanta-based Springfield Aviation Company. Mayfield was sentenced in 2022 after pleading guilty (archived here and here).

The post, which includes a photo of Onyema, was shared by an account called “IGBO History & Facts”. Igbo is a tribe and language spoken mostly in the southeastern part of Nigeria, and to which Onyema belongs (archived here). 

The account was created in 2015 to serve as an “Igbo Voice” and tell “Igbo stories to the world”. 

Hundreds of other accounts shared the claim elsewhere on X (see here, here and here), Facebook (including here, here and here) and Instagram.

Onyema was first indicted in 2019 alongside his chief financial officer Ejiroghene Eghagha over allegations of moving suspicious funds from Nigeria to American bank accounts in 2017 and 2018.

A total of 36 charges of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, credit application fraud, and identity theft exceeding $20 million were filed against Onyema and Eghagha and others (archived here). The charges were expanded to 38 in October 2024 after Onyema was indicted for allegedly submitting fake documents in a bid to end the initial case against him (archived here).

Claims that he was acquitted of some or all of these charges, however, are false. 

No acquittal

Among the results of a keyword search for the X post’s headline was a 2022 story about Mayfield's guilty plea published by Nigerian newspaper TheGuardian (archived here). A comparison of the viral X thread and the article showed they shared the same headline and contained nearly identical information.

The article, numerous versions of which were published by other Nigerian media, was based on a statement by Onyema's legal representatives Augustine Alegeh & Co. who said at the time that “the US Government admitted in court that no bank suffered any financial loss in this matter”.

However, the legal firm did not say Onyema had been acquitted, as the publications incorrectly stated.

In an email to AFP Fact Check, the US district court in Atlanta confirmed the charges against Onyema and Eghagha still stand. 

“The Court’s current docket report for case no. 1:19-cr-00464 does not reflect any acquittal,” said a court representative.

Our investigation showed that variations of the claim were published afresh by major Nigerian media outlets and hundreds of social media pages.

TheNation and Business Day newspapers published stories based on the claim on their websites on October 22, 2024, but removed them after backlash on their social media accounts. 

Archived versions of the now-deleted articles can be found here and here.

Local newspaper Leadership also published a story with the headline: “US Court Clears Air Peace CEO Onyema, Slams $4,000 Fine On Springfield Aviation Ex-Staff” (archived here).

Analysis of social media accounts showed that the false claim was shared on Facebook, X and Instagram by scores of accounts, pages and groups between October 13-22, 2024.

AFP Fact Check used the social media analysis tool Meta Content Library (MCL) to search for “Atlanta+Georgia+exonerated+Allen+Onyema”. The results found that at least 200 pages and groups had shared the story on Facebook.

Many posts were published in the early hours of October 22, 2024 — the same day Business Day, TheNation and Leadership published their versions. 

The MCL data also revealed that more than 40 accounts posted the claim on Instagram. 

AFP Fact Check already debunked a claim about Onyema's latest charges.