How Harry and Meghan were welcomed to Nigeria by a fugitive airline boss wanted in the US over $20M money laundering operation

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were welcomed to Nigeria last week by a fugitive who has been federally indicted in the United States for allegedly orchestrating a $20million money laundering and bank fraud scheme, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Air Peace CEO and Chairman, Dr. Allen Onyema, whose airline the royals took for their flight from the nation's capital Abuja into its largest city Lagos on May 12 was a key member of the welcoming committee that met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they touched down on the tarmac as part of their three-day-tour of Nigeria.

Dressed in navy and wearing shades and a red kufi hat, Onyema was one of a small group of dignitaries, which included senior military and government officials, photographed alongside the Sussexes as they deboarded their Air Peace aircraft.

Founded by Onyema just over a decade ago, Air Peace flies internationally and is the largest airline in West Africa.

Now, DailyMail.com has exclusively learned that the 59-year-old businessman is a wanted man in the United States, facing multiple charges linked to millions of dollars' worth of alleged fraud set down in a federal indictment filed in November 2019.

The indictment, obtained by DailyMail.com, accuses Onyema of allegedly 'using his status as a prominent business leader and airline executive to launder more than $20million from Nigeria through US bank accounts'.

There is no suggestion that either Harry or Meghan were aware of Onyema's history before they met him.

DailyMail.com also understands that the couple had planned to use a different airline but plans were changed at the last minute.

The charges were filed by former US Attorney Byung J 'BJay' Pak who has since left office. The case is now being pursued by US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan who took over the role in 2022.

Speaking at the time of filing Pak said of the man who gladhanded the Sussex's during their 'private' tour of his country, 'Onyema allegedly leveraged his status as a prominent business leader and airline executive while using falsified documents to commit fraud.'

Robert Murphy, the agent in charge of the DEA Atlanta field division added: 'Allan Onyema's status as a wealthy businessman turned out to be a fraud. He corrupted the US banking system, but his trail of deceit and trickery came to a skidding halt.'

The indictment goes on to allege that Onyema set up various 'innocent sounding multi-million-dollar asset purchases which were nothing more than alleged fronts for his scam'.

It states that Onyema is the founder and chairman of several organizations across Nigeria, including the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development and All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited.

Beginning in 2010 he began traveling frequently to Atlanta where he opened several personal and business bank accounts.

Between 2010 and 2018 over $44.9million was allegedly transferred into his Atlanta-based accounts from foreign sources.

Onyema founded Air Peace in 2013 and, according to the indictment, traveled to the United States in following years and purchased multiple airplanes.

However, the Department of Justice alleges, over $3million of the funds used to purchase the aircraft, 'allegedly came from bank accounts for the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development, All-Time Peace Media Communications Limited and Every Child Limited.'

Air Peace's Chief of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, has also been charged along with Onyema.

Both men were charged on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, three counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit credit application fraud and three counts of credit application fraud.

In addition, Onyema was charged with 27 separate counts of money laundering while Eghagha was charged with committing aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme.

Investigators allege that, beginning in approximately May 2016, the two men used a series of export letters of credit to cause banks to transfer more than $20million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema. The letters of credit were purportedly to fund the purchase of five Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace.

The letters were supported by documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals proving that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a business registered in Georgia. But, according to investigators, the supporting documents were fake.

Springfield Aviation Company LLC, which is owned by Onyema and managed by a person with no connection to the aviation business, never owned the aircraft in the first place and the company that allegedly drafted the appraisals did not exist.

In October 2022 American citizen Ebony Mayfield, a former staff member of Springfield Aviation Company was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $4,000 for her role in the alleged scheme after charges were filed against her by the US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

The charges against Onyema and Eghagha remain pending with both men maintaining their innocence.

Neither man responded to calls and emails to Air Peace's offices in Nigeria and the UK.

naptu2:
The Daily Express is obviously trying to do a "The Sun".

In the early 1990s, His Transmittance, Rupert Murdoch, ordered his media empire to go after the Royal Family. The chief attack vehicle was The Sun Newspaper and the chief target was Princess Diana. They wrote all kinds of crazy stories about her and her children (I actually remember a very offensive story that they wrote about William and Harry while the princes were still in primary school).

The Sun also viciously attacked Sarah Ferguson and this almost made her suffer a mental breakdown.


The Daily Express is currently trying to recreate that scenario. They have written all kinds of disgusting stories about Meghan Markle in the past 2 months. They will continue writing these stories, despite the fact that normal people are criticising them, because what they are after is attention (regardless of whether it's positive or negative) and these stories give them a lot of attention.

The Sun tried to pit Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson against each other in the late 1980s and early 1990s (despite the fact that they were like best friends) and the Daily Express is desperately trying to pit Kate Middleton against Meghan Markle.


1) Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York.

2) Diana & Sarah and Kate & Meghan.

3) Kate Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan Duchess of Sussex.

4) Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson.

naptu2:
A lot of Nigerians are shocked by what happened, but I am not. I witnessed this thing between 30 and 40 years ago.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Nigeria a few days ago and that made the mad people to include Nigeria in their discussions. This enabled some people to see how insane the mad people are.

One lunatic compared Nigeria to Nazi Germany, a senseless were complained that Meghan was touching Governor Sanwo-Olu (she said that Nigeria was a muslim country and women are not allowed to touch men) and all kinds of mad people said all kinds of stupid things about what the couple wore in Nigeria. None of this is new to me.

Dear Diary, I told you all about how the Daily Fail, the Stupid Sun and that useless magazine whose name I cannot remember, chased, hounded and attacked Princess Diana and Duchess Fergie in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, the reason I told you about it was because I was predicting that they would do it to Catherine and Meghan and I have been proved right.

I told you about how those useless rags spied on William and Harry when they were in primary and nursery school and how they tried to spin and twist what the Princes said. These were little children at the time.

I told you about the nonsense that they wrote about Nigeria when Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited in 1990 (in fact, it's in my thread about the visit).

So all this nonsense is basically a repeat of the nonsense that I read in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The lunatic that wrote about Nazi Germany was forced to delete his tweet.

naptu2:
I really wish this video was on youtube, so that I could show it to you and you could have a good laugh.

The funny man said that Nigeria is not a country that their royal family would ever set foot in. He said that Harry and Meghan were neophytes for visiting Nigeria.

Isn't that funny?

Do you know the number of times that members of the Royal Family have visited Nigeria in recent times??

Solely from memory.

Prince Philip came to Lagos in 1989 (that's when he laid the foundation stone of the Muson Center).

Prince Charles and Princes Diana came in 1990 (I created a thread about that).

Prince Charles came again in 1999 (for the inauguration of President Obasanjo).


Princess Anne came in 2001.

The Queen and Prince Philip came in 2003 (for CHOGM). The Queen only visited Abuja, but Prince Philip also came to Lagos.

Prince Charles came again in 2006 (that's when he took that photo with the Ooni and other traditional rulers).

I can't remember the exact year that Prince Edward came, but he did.

Prince Charles and Camilla visited Nigeria in 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1.

So you can see that the guy is simply very ignorant.

naptu2:
Sarah Ferguson (Fergie) almost had a mental breakdown because of constant harassment by the tabloids (especially the Daily Sun and the Daily Mirror).

They made fun of her weight and called her the "Duchess of Pork" instead of the Duchess of York. I remember reading a story in the Sun in which they claimed that she had sex with another man while she was pregnant with Princess Beatrice (by the way, I remember when Princess Beatrice was born. Everybody was talking about the significance of her birthday. She was born on the 8th day of the 8th month of 1988. Was it the 8th hour too?)

She and Prince Andrew travelled to California in 1988 and the British newspapers said that the trip was a, "brash, vulgar, excessive, weak-humored exhibition by two royals". However, officials of the City of Los Angeles said that the criticism was "awful" and offending, and observers described the Duke and his wife's behaviour as friendly, and said that they fulfilled their duties.

Cameramen from the tabloids followed her everywhere she went and took secret pictures of her. They tracked her to a private beach (after her separation from Prince Andrew) and took pictures of her while she was sunbathing topless on the beach.

I remember an interview that she gave a few years after the divorce. She said that she was relieved and she felt free because the media were no longer hounding her.

---

I guess that everybody knows what the media did to Princess Diana, so I'll only talk about one story that shocked me.

I got a copy of The Sun sometime between 1989 and 1992 and I saw an attention grabbing headline. I rushed to the story and I was shocked and disgusted.

This stupid paper had gone to William and Harry's school to monitor their activities. They reported that Harry said that he would hang someone when he becomes king and they also had reports about what Harry was doing in school.

These were primary school kids, for God' sakes! Primary school kids will say anything! But they tried to portray it as if it was some kind of serious issue. This could have scarred the kids for life!

I never took them seriously after that.

Fergie said that Diana gave her the strength and courage to get through the tough times.

---

You can see (in the pictures below) some of the nonsense that's being written about Meghan Markle. Do they actually expect her to cut off her baby bump when she's going out or what exactly is wrong with them?

Some people feel that the Daily Express is being racist, but I don't think that's the problem.

The Sun initially started attacking the Royal Family because Rupert Murdoch is a republican (in the Australian sense) and he wanted to discredit them.

However, they soon realised that it was a big boost to circulation. People would get offended by what The Sun wrote and other people would want to see what was so offensive in the story, so they would buy the paper and The Sun ended up making a lot of money that way.

I reckon that the Daily Express like the publicity (no publicity is bad publicity) and they expect that it will lead to more clicks and advertising revenue.

naptu2:
This is a shortened version of the story. I had to shorten it because I would probably never post it if I tried to write the full thing.

I often told people this story in the 1990s (in fact, I think I started telling the story in 1989). Unfortunately one of the three subjects of my story died a few years after I began telling it.

1) His Transmittance:

I think I'll begin with His Transmittance, Rupert Murdoch. I often told people that Rupert Murdoch had at least one TV network on every continent except Africa. He forced me to change my story a few years later when he expressed an interest in a media deal in Africa (that statement sent fear into the heart of Supersport).

Mr Murdoch is originally from Australia and his father owned a media empire over there. His father did not believed that Rupert Murdoch would amount to much because he seemed to be more interested in riding his motorcycle and in girls than the business. However, Mr Murdoch eventually exceeded his father's expectations.

He had shares in Sky in Australia, he owned British Sky Broadcasting and Sky Italia Europe (and he also famously owns The Times and The Sun newspapers in the UK), he owned Star TV in Asia, in 1996 he launched satellites for his package to broadcast more than 100 channels into South America and of course he owns the Fox Network and the Washington Post newspaper in North America (he had to become an American citizen in order to buy Fox. Non-Americans are not allowed to own TV stations in the US).

Sometime in the 1990s he expressed an interest in. . .in. . .I can't remember exactly what it was but it was either in creating a new cricket league or a new rugby league in South Africa. The league would have its own dedicated TV channel. I remember that Supersports/Multichoice complained to the South African Government about Rupert Murdoch's idea.

Mr Murdoch was, of course, heavily involved in sports. In fact, it was my recent wrestling series that reminded me of this story. Wrestling was one of the battlegrounds in this media war. Mr Murdoch, through Sky Sports in the UK, heavily promoted the WWF (now WWE) and one of his rivals had to create a wrestling promotion to compete with the WWF and Mr Murdoch.

He was heavily involved in the improvement in English football in the 1990s. English football was characterised by bad pitches and violence in the 1980s. However, in 1992, Sky Sports struck a huge deal with the English Premier League. The money was eye watering and it gave Sky the ability to tell the English League what it wanted and what it did not want. Sky certainly did not want to show pictures of thugs fighting in the stands, neither did it want to show pictures of bald or muddy pitches and therefore, the league had to up its game. The Sky deal also made the Premiership to realise that it could also raise a lot of money from foreign broadcasters if it had a good product. The BBC, which lost out, got a highlights package.

However, I was not happy with what Rupert Murdoch did to my 2 favourite members of the British Royal Family. Mr Murdoch is a republican, that is, he believes that the head of state of Australia should be a president, not the Queen and so he set his media organisations, especially the Sun, against the Royal Family. The Sun heavily attacked Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson (the Duchess of York) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Do you remember when the Sun published topless photos of Sarah Ferguson? I remember that horrible article in which they wrote an expose on William and Harry. The princes were in nursery and primary school at the time. They basically tried to demonise children for being children!


His media organisations in the United States have also been extremely right wing, as we can see with recent happenings around Donald Trump and Fox News. In fact, I was incredibly shocked last year when I saw what Sky Australia was posting on YouTube. I'm not surprised that YouTube issued a warning to them early this year.

I listened to an interview with a former editor of the Times and he said that one of the things that always surprised him was that he would have just put the paper to bed when he would receive a phone call from Mr Murdoch. He would call to discuss the stories that were in the paper. In other words, Rupert Murdoch, who was in New York, would already know what was in the newspaper that the editor had just finished making in London.

In recent times his media empire has been embroiled in scandals and this has forced him to either close some of the companies or relinquish control of them.

In the late 1990s it was reported that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had spoken to the Italian Government on behalf of Mr Murdoch. Mr Murdoch was trying to buy an Italian media company, but he had regulatory problems with the Italian Government and it was reported that he asked Mr Blair to help him speak to the Italian. This caused a scandal in the UK and Mr Blair was accused of working for his rich friends, rather than the masses of the UK.

The relationship between Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch broke down when it was alleged (in the 2010s) that Mr Blair had had an affair with Mr Murdoch's wife (later ex-wife).

There was an even bigger scandal in the 2000s. This was a huge, humongous, shocking and unbelievable scandal.

Mr Murdoch had one serious newspaper, The Times, and two tabloids, The Sun and The News of The World, in the UK. It was alleged that The News of The World had been hacking people's phones and bribing policemen in order to get stories. Initially it seemed like they had only hacked phones of politicians, members of the Royal Family and policemen, but the public was astounded when it was discovered that they had hacked the phone of a little girl who had been murdered.

Milly Dowler was a 13 year old girl who was kidnapped and murdered as she went home from school in the early 2000s. It was initially reported that she had been missing and there was a huge police operation to find her. The police eventually found her corpse. However, The News of The World hacked her phone in order to get more information about her and this had given her parents false hope that she was still alive (because her phone was remotely turned on and was working).

This and the fact that the newspaper had also hacked the phones of soldiers and victims of the London Bombing, caused a huge scandal and Mr Murdoch was forced to step down as chairman of News Corporation and the News of The World was eventually closed down.

2) Ted Turner:

Ted Turner had an obsession with Rupert Murdoch back in the 1990s. It was so obvious that he could not hide it.

Ted Turner is the founder of the Turner Broadcasting System, which included the Cable News Network (CNN), Cartoon Network, TNT, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and other TV channels.

Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club. However, Major League Baseball requires that all the club owners must agree before someone can buy an MLB club. Ted Turner, who owns the Atlanta Braves, blocked Murdoch's bid for many years (Mr Murdoch eventually bought the Dodgers in 1998 when Ted Turner's powers had been cut by Warner Brothers).

Rupert Murdoch, through Sky, had a deal with the WWF (now WWE), so Ted Turner bought one of the old NWA promotions and created WCW to challenge the WWF.

It looked like Ted Turner tried to counter every move that Rupert Murdoch made in the 1990s, but still he was not as big as Mr Murdoch. Then in 1998 Mr Turner merged Turner Broadcasting System with Warner Brothers, which was the biggest media company in the world at the time. This would certainly make him bigger than Rupert Murdoch, right? Well. . .

Ted Turner was made a vice president of Warner Brothers and head of cable television for the company. He even sacked his own son in order to ensure that the merger worked. However, soon afterwards, he was dropped as the head of cable television. He was still the vice president of the company, but he wasn't given any major powers. He resigned as vice president in 2001 and then resigned from the board in 2003.

Warner Brothers eventually sold all the companies that Ted Turner set up in order to compete with Mr Murdoch. For example, Warner Brothers sold WCW to the WWF.

3) Robert Maxwell

Robert Maxwell died in 1991, just a few years after I began telling this story. The way that he died seemed suspicious to me and I never believed the official story. His body was found in the Atlantic Ocean and it was believed that he fell off his yacht and died. He was the owner of the Mirror Group of Newspapers and Macmillan Publishers. He had also worked as a spy and a member of Parliament.

naptu2:
I almost laughed my head off the first time that I heard that name.

Dear diary, do you remember when I told you about British tabloids that hounded Princess Diana and Lady Ferguson? Well, they weren't the only ones that were hounded. The tabloids loved sensational news and many times they simply made up stories in order to attract readers. They unfairly attacked celebrities, encouraged xenophobia and racism, and did just about anything sensational that could improve their circulation figures.

They are still doing it today with the Princesses Kate and Meghan.

Some people that are fed up with the antics of these newspapers have given them nickname. My favourite nickname (which is the one that made me laugh like crazy) is the Daily Fail, which is used to refer to the Daily Mail newspaper.

naptu2:
The different sections of the media covered the story from different angles. British tabloids wrote that the Prince and Princess should not travel to Lagos because they could get mugged there. They wrote that Lagos was one of the most dangerous cities in the world with high rates of crime and violence and the royals should not go there (I thought that the articles were quite laughable and crazy. Who would dare mug the Prince and Princess with the number of policemen and SSS operatives that would be deployed to guard them?). Columnists in the Nigerian mainstream press responded with articles that highlighted the crime rate in London at the time and the violence that erupted during the Poll Tax riots of 1989 (I pointed out that we had also had our own very violent SAP riots [the Ebony Magazine edition] in 1989).

The fashion press focused on Princess Diana and Maryam Babangida. Maryam Babangida was noted for her beautiful attires and she brought glamour to the position of First Lady (something that had not been seen since Victoria Gowon in the 1970s). Some women had a habit of watching the news just to see what Mrs. Babangida was wearing so that they could copy it. The visit occurred during a massive fashion boom in Nigeria that lasted between 1988-1991. Fashion houses like Maufechi, Dakova (David Kolawole Vaughan), Supreme Stitches (Folorunsho Alakija), Labanella (Princess Abba Adesanya), Chic Afrique (Opral Benson), etc witnessed growth and many young people wanted to be either fashion designers or wonder bankers. Some newspapers had established fashion columns and NTA2 Channel 5 showed New Trends, a popular fashion show, on their Super 7:20 belt. Princess Diana was also noted for her elegant clothes which were often auctioned to raise funds for charity. Fashion columns were devoted to the question of who would be better dressed, Maryam or Princess Di?

The entertainment and gossip columns (Vintage People, Weekend Concord, etc) turned their attention to Nigeria's own Prince and Princess - the Prince and Princess of Punk, Charly Boy and Lady Dianne Oputa. The press asked Charly Boy what he thought of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Charly Boy replied that he wasn't really interested in the visit. They asked him if he would meet with Prince Charles. He told them to ask Prince Charles if he would come to the Punk Palace and meet with him. Charly Boy was still very popular at this time. This was not long after his successful songs Big Bottom and 1990.

naptu2:
1990