A United States District Court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now NNPC Limited), to 87 months in prison for his role in a $2.1 million bribery scheme involving Addax Petroleum.
Addax Petroleum is a subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned oil and gas conglomerate.
In a statement issued on Monday, US authorities said District Judge John Walter also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In addition, the court directed the forfeiture of $1,039,997 — representing the net proceeds from the sale of a property owned by the former NNPC executive.
Okoronkwo was convicted in August 2025 on charges of transactional money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors told the court that while serving as general manager of NNPC’s upstream division, Okoronkwo abused his office by accepting a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, the Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec.
According to the prosecution, the funds were wired in October 2015 to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles and were falsely labelled as consultancy fees. Authorities maintained the payment was, in fact, a bribe intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Evidence presented in court showed that Addax executives allegedly falsified documentation to portray the transfer as legitimate legal fees, dismissed employees who questioned the transaction, and misled auditors.
Okoronkwo, who later practised immigration, family and personal injury law in Koreatown, Los Angeles, was said to have used nearly $1 million from the illicit funds as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California. Prosecutors noted that he failed to declare the income in his 2015 tax filings.
In October 2025, the court approved a government forfeiture request targeting the property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381.
