A United States federal court has convicted Paulinus Okoronkwo, a former General Manager in the Upstream Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), over a $2.1 million bribery scheme.
Okoronkwo was found guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice following a four-day trial that exposed how he received illicit payments from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec, in 2015.
According to prosecutors, Addax wired $2.1 million into the trust account of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles-based law firm under the guise of a consultancy fee. In reality, the payment was a bribe designed to secure favourable oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
Court records showed that Addax executives falsified documents to mask the bribe as legitimate legal services, dismissed employees who raised questions, and misled auditors to conceal the transaction.
Investigators also revealed that Okoronkwo diverted part of the funds for personal use, including nearly $1 million as a down payment for a house in Valencia, California. He failed to declare the illicit income in his 2015 federal tax returns.
In June 2022, when questioned by federal agents, Okoronkwo misrepresented the nature of the payment, insisting it was client money rather than firm income, and denied using the funds for property acquisition.
US District Judge John Walter, who presided over the case, has scheduled sentencing for December 1, 2025. Okoronkwo faces up to 10 years in prison for each count of money laundering, another 10 years for obstruction of justice, and five years for tax evasion.
