A United States court has fixed 28 October for the sentencing of Ebony Mayfield, a co-conspirator in an alleged $20 million fraud involving the founder of Air Peace, Allen Onyema.
According to Premium Times, MS Mayfield, accused of helping Mr Onyema to sign fake documents to facilitate a fraudulent $20 million loan, had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge on 29 June.
The trial judge, Eleanor Ross, of the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, has now fixed 28 October for her sentencing, a court notice .
The fraud allegedly spearheaded by Mr Onyema was allegedly perpetrated under the guise of obtaining credit to buy aircraft for Air Peace, a frontline Nigerian airline, in the U.S.
Ms Mayfield was accused of helping Mr Onyema to facilitate the $20 million bank fraud between May 2016 and February 2018 when she worked as the manager for Springfield Aviation Company LLC, owned by the Air Peace founder.
U.S. prosecutors accused her of signing and submitting false documents used by Mr Onyema to perpetrate the bank fraud in the U.S.
Mr Onyema and Air Peace Limited’s Head of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, also face 36 charges at the U.S. court in connection with the alleged fraudulent scheme.
But they have yet to show up or send a lawyer to represent them in court.
Trial.
Ms Mayfield, who was arrested on 7 June 2019, for her alleged roles in the alleged scheme, had previously pleaded not guilty to all eight charges filed against her in December 2019.
Her trial was, in March this year, rescheduled to start on August 8.
But weeks before the trial date, she changed her plea from not guilty to guilty when she appeared before the trial judge on 29 June to plead guilty.
Ms Mayfield pleaded guilty to one of the eight counts filed against her by the U.S. government.
A copy of the plea agreement she and her lawyer signed with U.S. prosecutors shows she specifically pleaded guilty to Count 5, which is a conspiracy to commit credit application fraud.