US Court Jails Ex-NNPC Chief Paulinus Okoronkwo 87 Months Over $2.1m Addax Bribery Scheme

A United States district court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former top executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now NNPC Limited), to 87 months in federal prison for his role in a $2.1 million bribery and money laundering scheme involving Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned energy giant Sinopec.
Delivering judgment, U.S. District Judge John Walter ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for unpaid taxes linked to the illicit funds. The court also directed the forfeiture of $1,039,997 — the net proceeds from the sale of his Valencia, California home, purchased with part of the bribe money.
Okoronkwo was convicted in August 2025 on charges of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors established that while serving as General Manager of NNPC’s upstream division, he abused his office by receiving $2.1 million from Addax Petroleum in October 2015.
According to court filings, the funds were wired to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles under the guise of consultancy fees. In reality, prosecutors argued, the payment was a bribe intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Evidence presented at trial showed that executives at Addax falsified internal records to classify the transfer as legitimate legal fees, sidelined staff who raised red flags, and misled external auditors about the true nature of the transaction.
After receiving the funds, Okoronkwo — who later practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Los Angeles’ Koreatown district — allegedly channelled nearly $1 million as a down payment for a property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California. He failed to declare the illicit income on his 2015 tax return, triggering additional charges of tax evasion.
In October 2025, a U.S. court granted the government’s forfeiture application against the property, paving the way for the seizure of proceeds tied to the corruption scheme.
The sentencing marks a significant milestone in U.S. authorities’ crackdown on transnational corruption and money laundering, underscoring the far-reaching legal consequences for public officials who exploit their positions for personal gain.