Air Peace Boss, U.S Fraud Conspirator Pleads Guilty
Air Peace Boss U.S Fraud Conspirator Pleads Guilty …..Ebony Mayfield, a co-conspirator in a $20 million fraud allegedly organised by the founder of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has begged for a supervised release instead of being sentenced to prison.
Ms Mayfield risks five years jail term after pleading guilty to a charge of helping Mr Onyema to sign fake documents in support of his request for a $20 million credit between 2016 and 2018.
She pleaded guilty to the charges before the trial judge, Eleanor Ross, of the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta, on 29 June.
The charges include 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.
US prosecutors accused her of signing and submitting false documents used by Mr Onyema to perpetrate bank fraud in the US
Mr Onyema and Air Peace Limited’s Head of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, also face 36 charges at the US court in connection with the alleged fraudulent scheme.
But they have yet to show up or send a lawyer to represent them in court.
charityreporters reported that following Ms Mayfield’s guilty plea, the trial judge has fixed 28 October for her sentencing.
Ahead of the sentencing, Ms Mayfield’s lawyer, Manubir Arora, on 13 October, filed for a “downward variance” of sentence.
In the document, titled, ‘Sentencing Memorandum and Motion for Downward Variance,’ the defence team asked for “a probated sentence” contrary to imprisonment provided for her offence in the sentencing guidelines.
The defence team in the request asked for a probated sentence or what they referred to as a conditional release for their clients. They argued that “imprisonment is not the only form of punishment”.
They stressed that “probation alone is a viable alternative form of punishment.”
If given probated sentence, Ms Mayfield’s lawyers said, her travel will be restricted and her associations will be regulated.
She will also be subject to random searches of her person and premises and subject to other special conditions such as house arrest and intermittent confinement.
“In Ms Mayfield’s case, probation serves all the goals of sentencing even though the guidelines may call for imprisonment,” her court filing says.
Ms Mayfield’s defence team argued that “probation serves all the goals of sentencing even though the guidelines may call for imprisonment.”
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They noted that Ms Mafied is a first-time offender and someone who “has not been convicted of a crime of violence or an otherwise serious offence”.
They admitted that “lengthy incarceration has a specific deterrent effect,” but maintained that “it is not the only form of punishment to render a deterrent effect.”
“The question is whether the specific punishment imposed has an adequate deterrent effect. Counsel respectfully submits that in the case of Ms Mayfield, this goal can be adequately addressed by a sentence that does not require imprisonment for a nonviolent offender.”
The defence team, therefore, asked the court to “weigh all the factors present in this case and sentence Ms Mayfield to a term of supervised release.”
Ms Mayfield, who was arrested on June 7, 2019, for her 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 8 August.
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.
Ms Mayfield pleaded guilty to one of the eight counts filed against her by the US government.
A copy of the plea agreement she and her lawyer signed with US prosecutors shows she specifically pleaded guilty to Count 5, which is a conspiracy to commit credit application fraud.
She risks up to five years jail term for the offence if the court chooses to strictly follow the sentencing guidelines.
Five years imprisonment is the maximum jail term provided for in Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, under which she was charged with the offence in Count 5.
Aside from the risk 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. The fine is due and payable immediately.
She will also make full restitution due and payable immediately to all victims of the offence(s) and relevant conduct.
The plea agreement also recommends the forfeiture of any and all proceeds from the commission of the offence and any and all property used or intended to be used to facilitate the offence.
She will be subjected to a mandatory special assessment of $100, due and payable immediately.
She also, by pleading guilty, gave up the right to plead not guilty, the right to be tried by a jury, and the right to appeal against her conviction.
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