A former senior official of Nigeria’s national oil company has been sentenced to more than seven years in a United States prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar bribery and money laundering case.
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, once a General Manager in the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was handed an 87-month jail term by a federal court in California.
The sentence followed his conviction for receiving a $2.1 million bribe linked to oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
The court also ordered him to pay over $923,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit more than $1 million traced to the sale of a property bought with laundered funds.
US District Judge John Walter delivered the ruling after a jury found Okoronkwo guilty on several counts, including money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
At trial, prosecutors said the former NNPC official negotiated favourable drilling terms for a subsidiary of Sinopec. The company involved was Addax Petroleum, which feared losing billions of dollars if its oil rights in Nigeria were not secured.
According to investigators, Addax wired $2,105,263 into a trust account belonging to Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm in October 2015. The payment was presented as consultancy fees, but US authorities said it was a disguised bribe.
“The engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office – with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria – was a ruse intended to conceal the fact that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favourable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria,” the US explained.
Further findings showed that the money was later moved through a company called IPO Capital LLC. From there, the funds were used to cover personal expenses, including the purchase of a car and a family home.
Court records revealed that nearly $1 million from the bribe was used as part payment for a house in Valencia, California, in 2017.
Okoronkwo also failed to declare the $2.1 million on his 2015 tax return. Prosecutors said he later lied to federal investigators by claiming the money was client funds and not income.
“Okoronkwo, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria and who practiced immigration, family, and personal injury law out of an office in Koreatown, was a foreign official who served as the general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC).
“The NNPC is a state-owned company through which Nigeria’s government developed that nation’s fossil fuel and natural gas reserves, including through partnerships with foreign oil companies. In this role, Okoronkwo owed a fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government and was a public official,” it emphasised.
In January 2026, his law licence was suspended by the State Bar of California. The investigation was carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation unit.
Moreover, the US prosecutors described the case as part of efforts to clamp down on foreign corruption and financial crimes involving public officials.
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