Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Pierre Antoine
A United States federal court has sentenced Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, a dual Nigerian-American and former General Manager of the Upstream Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to 87 months (seven years and three months) in federal prison for his role in a bribery and corruption scheme involving $2.1 million. The ruling was delivered by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter at the United States District Court for the Central District of California earlier this week.
Okoronkwo, who also practised law in Los Angeles after leaving NNPC, was convicted by a federal jury in August 2025 on multiple counts, including three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors told the court that in October 2015, Okoronkwo accepted a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, the Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate. The bulk of this money was wired into the trust account (IOLTA) of his Los Angeles law firm, where it was falsely characterised as legal fees for consultancy work related to securing more favourable drilling rights for Addax in Nigeria.
The United States Department of Justice described the payment as a bribe intended to influence Okoronkwo in his official capacity at NNPC, a position that placed him in a role of fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government. Evidence presented at trial showed that Addax executives went to lengths to conceal the true nature of the payment, including using falsified documents, dismissing internal staff who questioned the transaction, and misleading auditors, according to the official DOJ press release.
Between 2016 and 2018, Okoronkwo is reported to have transferred much of the illicit funds through an entity called IPO Capital LLC and used them for personal purposes, including family expenses, automobiles, and a residential property in Valencia, California. In late 2017, he used approximately $983,200 of the bribe proceeds as a down payment on the house. Prosecutors also established that Okoronkwo failed to declare the $2.1 million payment in his 2015 U.S. federal income tax return.
In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Walter ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and forfeit $1,039,997, the net proceeds from the sale of the Valencia property tied to the bribery proceeds. The forfeiture order followed a separate federal civil action last year in which the court determined the residence was subject to seizure for being purchased with illicit funds.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the IRS Criminal Investigation division, with support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs. Prosecutors from the DOJ’s Major Frauds Section and the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section handled the prosecution. Okoronkwo’s law licence in California was suspended in January 2026 in light of the conviction.
The sentencing underscores the reach of U.S. anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering laws as they apply to foreign officials and businesspeople when illicit conduct intersects with the U.S. financial system. It also highlights ongoing international legal scrutiny of corruption in global energy transactions, particularly in Africa’s oil-producing sectors.
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