The United States government has piled more charges on the earlier $20 million bank fraud case against Allen Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace, as the Nigerian businessman continues to elude trial in an American court in the last five years.

Although Mr Onyema, founder of the major Nigerian airline, has denied wrongdoing, he has been wanted in the US over the bank fraud charges pending against him and a co-defendant at the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta since 2019.

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On October 8, 2024, both individuals were officially charged in what is known as a superseding indictment. This legal document includes a new allegation that adds another charge for obstructing justice, as well as a separate charge for conspiring to obstruct justice. This information was shared by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia in an official statement released on Friday.

The office said Mr Onyema is accused of “obstruction of justice for submitting false documents to the government in an effort to end an investigation of him that resulted in earlier charges of bank fraud and money laundering.”