On Friday, a US court handed down a three-year probationary term to an admitted conspirator in the $20 million fraud that Air Peace CEO Allen Onyema is accused of orchestrating.
Ebony Mayfiled, who had pleaded guilty in June to the allegation of signing and submitting forged documents in order to facilitate the alleged fraud, was also given a $4,000 fine by the court.
In an alleged money laundering plan, the US authorities charged her with signing and submitting fraudulent paperwork between 2016 and 2018 to assist Mr. Onyema, owner of prominent Nigerian airline Air Peace, in moving $20 million from Nigeria to the US.
She was charged in 2019, and before the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, she first entered a “not guilty” plea to each of the eight allegations.
But in June, after entering into a plea deal in which the US government dropped the remaining seven accusations against her, she modified her plea to one of the offences and pleaded guilty.
According to the law under which she was prosecuted, the maximum sentence for the offence to which she pleaded guilty was five years in prison.
Following her admission of guilt, her attorney requested a sentencing variance on October 13 and begged for a probated sentence or what is known as supervised release rather than incarceration.
The US administration responded by agreeing to a reduced range of sentences, which includes six months of home confinement, PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier on Friday.
After considering the pre-sentence report with the parties’ attorneys and giving Ms. Mayfield a brief hearing, the judge, Eleanor Ross, sentenced her to “a total of THREE (3) YEARS of probation” on Friday.
“$4,000 fine (interest is forgiven); $100 special assessment; and extra conditions,” the judge further ordered.
Additionally, he observed that she was eligible for bail and awarded her some limited appellate rights.
