Afrigather Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s camp spoke out following a report that the couple had been allegedly welcomed in Nigeria by a wanted United States fugitive.
On Could 18, the Daily Mail reported that the Sussexes had been flown round Nigeria for his or her three-day tour final week by Air Peace, which is based by Dr. Allen Onyema.
Onyema, 59, is the topic of a US federal indictment filed again in November 2019. He was charged in a $20 million financial institution fraud and cash laundering case, in accordance with the US Division of Justice.
Reacting to the allegations, a supply near Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, instructed the Daily Beast that the couple’s journey in Nigeria was organized by the Nigerian Chief of Protection Employees.
The insider additionally famous that Air Peace “is the most important airline in Nigeria and West Africa, and has every day flights from Lagos to Britain’s London Gatwick airport.”
It’s nonetheless unclear if Meghan and Harry knew in regards to the prices filed in opposition to Onyema.
Sources inside the UK’s International and Commonwealth Workplace beforehand told the Daily Mail that Harry and Meghan had been “visiting Nigeria in a non-public capability” and that the UK authorities was not concerned in “arranging or facilitating” their actions.
The Put up reached out to Harry and Meghan’s reps for remark.
Harry and Meghan spent 3 days in Nigeria final week after being invited by the West African nation’s chief of protection workers — its highest-ranking navy official.
They arrived in Lagos on Could 12 and had been greeted by a welcoming committee that included Onyema, who equipped his Nigerian service to the exiled royals throughout their journey.
In November 2019, the US Division of Justice released a statement saying Onyema was “charged with financial institution fraud and cash laundering for shifting greater than $20 million from Nigeria by way of United States financial institution accounts in a scheme involving false paperwork primarily based on the acquisition of airplanes.”
Onyema allegedly used the laundered cash, partially, to purchase a Lexus, a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes and designer items at Prada and Louis Vuitton, CNN has reported.
In line with the DOJ, over $44.9 million was allegedly transferred into Onyema’s private and enterprise financial institution accounts that he opened in Atlanta from overseas sources between 2010 and 2018.
Onyema has maintained his innocence, saying again in 2019: “Be relaxation assured that I even have my attorneys on this and these mere allegations will probably be refuted.”
“I by no means laundered cash in my life, neither have I dedicated financial institution fraud wherever on the planet,” he additional asserted. “Each Kobo [Nigerian currency] I transferred to the US for plane buy went by way of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria LC regime and all had been used for a similar goal.”
Harry and Meghan traveled to Nigeria after the Duke of Sussex took a solo trip to London to have a good time the tenth anniversary of his Invictus Video games.
He stayed in a hotel as an alternative of royal housing and did not see any of his estranged relatives, together with his cancer-stricken father, King Charles III.
